Discuss Whether Justified True Belief Can Be Considered Knowledge - Essay Example

Nonetheless, such engagement can also bring one to learn more about knowledge – a term ordinarily thought synonymous with the word ‘know’, when not everything we know constitutes knowledge, not even a JTB? JTB is composed of three concepts – belief, truth and justifiedness. Most basic of which is the understanding of belief, as the question of knowledge here is actually related with belief. To rephrase the main question, if JTB can be considered knowledge, would be: Can belief be qualified as knowledge if it is proven justifiably true?

From this question, it can be inferred that not all beliefs can be considered knowledge and that even JTB can be doubted as knowledge. Essentially so, the main question centres on understanding what knowledge is. But since the question of knowledge here is limited only in qualifying JTB as knowledge or not, the discussion would only be limited in understanding philosophical views that either affirm or negate JTB as knowledge. So the discussion shall focus only on understanding when a belief is justifiably true; when JTB cannot be considered knowledge; and when JTB can be considered knowledge.

Justified True Belief Belief is something we accept to be real or true. . Of these, perceptual belief is most common, because we easily believe on the existence of things that are perceivable – these are called sense data. These sense data make us believe on the existence of things. For example, we believe in flowers because we see, smell and touch them. In fact, the first and immediate way for us in knowing about the things around us is making use of our five senses (Huemer 2002, p. 27). We come to know first about flowers not through books but through seeing one; we come to differentiate between sweet and bitter not through others testimony but through our sense of taste; we come to know pain and relief because we felt it; we come to know about odours because we smell them; and we come to know about sounds because we hear them – these perceptual experiences we have everyday made us believe on their existence.

But not everything we perceive necessarily constitutes what we believe. There are some things we perceive that we may not believe nor care to believe. For example, we see a horse in a painting. Although we know what a horse look like, we do not believe that the horse in the painting is a real horse knowing that works of art, like painting, are basically imitations of the real world or representations of the painter’s perception, feelings or thought (Sheppard 1987, p. 4). On the other hand, not everything we believe may be true, because we are imperfect not only in our perceptions but also in what we remember, on how we reason out, and in other things that we do; so, it is most probable that we can be deceived by our own senses (Audi 2003, p. 8), which under various circumstances can perform differently.

For example, if you are colour-blind, you are