Abstract
There seem to be Gettier cases that do not involve any false beliefs that the coherentist must say involve knowledge. In order to avoid this result the coherentist must attribute false assumptions to the subject, but that forces him to say that knowledge is lacking in certain cases involving misleading, unpossessed evidence. I will argue that the coherentist cannot escape this dilemma. That is because knowledge requires reliable, non-negligent belief formation where, in addition, the subject does not hold a true belief by sheer luck, and coherentism cannot adequately account for any of these conditions.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Bender, John W. “Knowledge, Justification, and Lehrer’s Theory of Coherence.” Philosophical Studies (1988), (forthcoming).
Davis, Wayne A., and John W. Bender. “Fundamental Troubles With The Coherence Theory,” this volume.
Lehrer, Keith, “Metaknowledge: Undefeated Justification.” Synthese 74 (1988), 329–47.
Lehrer, Keith. “The Coherence Theory of Knowledge.” Philosophical Topics 14 (1986), 5–25.
Lehrer, Keith, and Paxson, Thomas. “Knowledge: Undefeated Justified True Belief.” Journal of Philosophy 66 (1968) 225–37. Reprinted in Esasys on Knowledge and Justification, George S. Pappas and Marshall Swain, eds., Cornell University Press, 1978, 146–54.
Plantinga, Alvin. “Coherentism and the Evidentialist Objection to Belief in God,” in Rationality, Religious Belief, & Moral Commitment, Robert Audi and William J. Wainwright, eds., Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1986: 109–38.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1989 Kluwer Academic Publishers
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Russell, B. (1989). When Can What You Don’t Know Hurt You?. In: Bender, J.W. (eds) The Current State of the Coherence Theory. Philosophical Studies Series, vol 44. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2360-7_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2360-7_8
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-010-7563-3
Online ISBN: 978-94-009-2360-7
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive