Advertisement

Knowledge as True Belief

  • Isaac LeviEmail author
Chapter
First Online:
  • 633 Downloads
Part of the Logic, Epistemology, and the Unity of Science book series (LEUS, volume 21)

Abstract

“Knowledge” is an honorific intended to distinguish sources of information that are approved from those that are not and also to distinguish full beliefs that are prized from full beliefs that are despised. These are two distinct functions. The function of sources of information is quite different from the function of states of full belief. We should not expect that the characterization of knowledge in the two cases should be the same or that conflict between the two can be settled by appeal to “our ordinary” concept of knowledge. (There is no such thing.)

Keywords

True Belief Potential State Belief State Propositional Attitude Credal Probability 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

References

  1. Brandom, R. 1994. Making it explicit. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
  2. Cohen, L.J. 1977. The probable and the provable. Oxford: The Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
  3. Cohen, L.J. 1992. An essay on probability and acceptance. Oxford: The Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
  4. Craig, E. 1990. Knowledge and the state of nature. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
  5. Davidson, D. 1980. Essays on actions and events. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
  6. De Rose, K. 1992. Contextualism and knowledge attribution. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 52:913–929.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  7. Dubois, D., and H. Prade. 1992. Belief change and possibility theory. In Belief revision, ed. P. Gärdenfors, 142–182. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  8. Dudman, V.H. 1983. Tense and time in English verb clusters of the primary pattern. Australasian Journal of Linguistics 3:25–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  9. Dudman, V.H. 1984. Conditional interpretations of if-sentences in English. Australasian Journal of Linguistics 4:143–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  10. Dudman, V.H. 1985. Towards a theory of predication in English. Australasian Journal of Linguistics 5:143–193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  11. Gärdenfors, P. 1986. Belief revision and the ramsey test for conditionals. Philosophical Review 95:81–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  12. Gärdenfors, P. 1988. Knowledge in flux. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
  13. Gibbard, A. 1981. Two recent theories of conditionals. In Ifs: Conditionals, belief, decision, chance and time, eds. W.J. Harper et al., 211–247. Dordrecht: Reidel.Google Scholar
  14. Hacking, I. 1967. A slightly more realistic personalist probability. Philosophy of Science 34:311–325.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  15. Jeffrey, R.C. 1965. The logic of decision. New York, NY: McGraw Hill.Google Scholar
  16. Kitcher, P. 2006. The knowledge business. In Knowledge and inquiry, ed. E. Olsson, 50–64. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  17. Levi, I. 1967a. Gambling with truth. New York, NY: A. Knopf, paperback edition in 1973 by MIT Press.Google Scholar
  18. Levi, I. 1967b. Probability kinematics. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 18:197–209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  19. Levi, I. 1969. If Jones only knew more. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 20:153–159.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  20. Levi, I. 1976. Acceptance revisited. In Local induction, ed. R. Bogdan, 1–71. Dordrecht: Reidel.Google Scholar
  21. Levi, I. 1979. Serious possibility. In Essays in honour of Jaakko Hintikkai, 219–236. Dordrecht: Reidel, reprinted in Levi (1984), 147–161.Google Scholar
  22. Levi, I. 1980. The enterprise of knowledge. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 2nd paperback edition, 1983.Google Scholar
  23. Levi, I. 1983. Truth, fallibility and the growth of knowledge. In Language, logic and method, eds. R.S. Cohen, and M.W. Wartofsky, 153–174. Dordrecht: Reidel, Reprinted as  chapter 8 of Levi (1984).Google Scholar
  24. Levi, I. 1984. Decisions and revisions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  25. Levi, I. 1988. The iteration of conditionals and the Ramsey test. Synthese 76:49–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  26. Levi, I. 1991. The fixation of belief and its undoing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  27. Levi, I. 1996. For the sake of the argument. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  28. Levi, I. 1997. The covenant of reason. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
  29. Levi, I. 1999. Representing preferences, Davidson on rational choice. In The philosophy of Donald Davidson, library of living philosophers XXII, chapter 23, 531–570. Chicago and LaSalle, IL: Open Court.Google Scholar
  30. Levi, I. 2003. Contracting from epistemic hell is routine. Synthese 135:141–164.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  31. Levi, I. 2004. Mild contraction: Evaluating loss of information due to loss of belief. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
  32. Olsson. E.J. 2003. Avoiding epistemic hell: Levi on pragmatism and inconsistency. Synthese 135:119–140.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  33. Shackle, G.L.S. 1949. Expectations in economics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2nd edn, 1952.Google Scholar
  34. Shackle, G.L.S. 1961. Decision, order and time in human affairs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2nd edn, 1969.Google Scholar
  35. Spohn, W. 1990. A general non-probabilistic theory of inductive reasoning. In Uncertainty in artificial intelligence, vol. 4, eds. R.D. Shachter et al. Amsterdam: North Holland.Google Scholar
  36. Spohn, W. 2006. Isaac Levi’s potentially surprising epistemological picture. In Knowledge and inquiry, ed. Erik Olsson, 125–142. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  37. Stanley, J. 2003. Knowledge and practical interests. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
  38. Unger, P. 1975. Ignorance: A case for skepticism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Paperback edition 2002.Google Scholar
  39. Van Fraassen, B. 1984. Belief and the will. The Journal of Philosophy 81:235–256.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  40. Williams, M. 2001. Problems of knowledge: A critical introduction to epistemology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
  41. Williamson, T. 1996. Knowing and asserting. The Philosophical Review 105:489–523.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  42. Williamson, T. 2000. Knowledge and its limits. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Columbia UniversityNew YorkUSA

Personalised recommendations

Cite chapter

Buy options