You'd remember someone carrying this wouldn't you?
We've spent a lot of time so far with these thought experiments trying to explore what it is that we actually know. And apparently, we've done such a good job proving that we can't fully know anything, we have to keep repeating the lesson again and again. So, here is yet another way to consider the issue.
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It was a very strange coincidence. One day last week, while Naomi was paying for her coffee, the man behind her, fumbling in his pockets, dropped his key ring. Naomi picked it up and couldn't help but notice the small white rabbit dangling from it. As she handed it back to the man, who had a very distinctive, angular, ashen face, he looked a little embarrassed and said, "I take it everywhere. Sentimental reasons." He blushed and they said no more.
The very next day she was about to cross the road when she heard a screeching of brakes and then an ominous thud. Almost without thinking, she was drawn with the crowd to the scene of the accident, like iron filings collecting around a magnet. She looked to see who the victim was and saw that same white, jagged face. A doctor was already examining him. "He's dead."
She was required to give a statement to the police. "All I know is that he bought a coffee at that cafe yesterday and that he always carried a key ring with a white rabbit." The police were able to confirm that both facts were true.
Five days later Naomi almost screamed out loud when, queuing once more for her coffee, she turned to see what looked like the same man standing behind her. He registered her shock but did not seem surprised by it. "You thought I was my twin brother, right?" he asked. Naomi nodded. "You're not the first to react like that since the accident. It doesn't help that we both come to the same cafe, but not usually together."
As he spoke, Naoimi couldn't help staring at what was in his hands: a white rabbit on a key ring. The man was not taken aback by that either. "You know mothers. They like to treat their kids the same."
Naomi found the whole experience disconcerting. But the question that bothered her when she finally calmed down was: has she told the police the truth?
Source: "Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?" by E. Gettier, republished in Analytic Philosophy: An Anthology, 2001.
Baggini, J., The Pig That Wants to Be Eaten, 2005, p. 187.
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Any new thoughts out there on what "truth" is? Either me or my twin brother will be back on Friday with a recap. Although you won't be able to tell which one of us is writing...
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It was a very strange coincidence. One day last week, while Naomi was paying for her coffee, the man behind her, fumbling in his pockets, dropped his key ring. Naomi picked it up and couldn't help but notice the small white rabbit dangling from it. As she handed it back to the man, who had a very distinctive, angular, ashen face, he looked a little embarrassed and said, "I take it everywhere. Sentimental reasons." He blushed and they said no more.
The very next day she was about to cross the road when she heard a screeching of brakes and then an ominous thud. Almost without thinking, she was drawn with the crowd to the scene of the accident, like iron filings collecting around a magnet. She looked to see who the victim was and saw that same white, jagged face. A doctor was already examining him. "He's dead."
She was required to give a statement to the police. "All I know is that he bought a coffee at that cafe yesterday and that he always carried a key ring with a white rabbit." The police were able to confirm that both facts were true.
Five days later Naomi almost screamed out loud when, queuing once more for her coffee, she turned to see what looked like the same man standing behind her. He registered her shock but did not seem surprised by it. "You thought I was my twin brother, right?" he asked. Naomi nodded. "You're not the first to react like that since the accident. It doesn't help that we both come to the same cafe, but not usually together."
As he spoke, Naoimi couldn't help staring at what was in his hands: a white rabbit on a key ring. The man was not taken aback by that either. "You know mothers. They like to treat their kids the same."
Naomi found the whole experience disconcerting. But the question that bothered her when she finally calmed down was: has she told the police the truth?
Source: "Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?" by E. Gettier, republished in Analytic Philosophy: An Anthology, 2001.
Baggini, J., The Pig That Wants to Be Eaten, 2005, p. 187.
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Any new thoughts out there on what "truth" is? Either me or my twin brother will be back on Friday with a recap. Although you won't be able to tell which one of us is writing...
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