Justin Reynolds Philosophy Exam 2 Essay Phil 447 Theory of Knowledge Joe Campbell

Under the platonic definition of knowledge, that knowledge is justified true belief, externalists hold that no one has iterative knowledge, that is, for any proposition it is impossible to know that you know what you do. Instead of using the traditional definition of knowledge Nozick offered his own explanation on how to define knowledge which he coined as the Truth-Tracking view. His method replaces justification with subjunctive reasoning, which means there is no need in making distinctions between empirical truths and necessary truths. By doing so Nozick has been able to criticize the externalists point of view by claiming that it is, in fact, possible to have knowledge. Externalists believe that no one has iterative knowledge with the reasoning that for every proposition P, S does not know P because S does not know K. Or in other words even if I know I have a hand, I do not really know that I have a hand because I do not know that I am not a preprogrammed brain in a vat. Under the externalists view, no one knows that they arent a brain in a vat, and if I am just a brain in a vat than I do not know anything other than what I was programmed to believe. The externalist thus claims that it isnt possible to have even iterative knowledge. This claim does not hold against Nozicks definition of knowledge though. Truth tracking entails
1. p is true 2. S believes p 3. if p were not true, S would not believe p adherence condition 4. if p were true, S would believe p variation condition

Nozick doesnt aim to prove that skepticism is false, but instead holds that knowledge is possible. Nozicks truth-tracking definition uses subjunctive reasoning instead of justification. Truth tracking says that any virtuous persons belief would vary according to the truth value of P, and when given P, the knower would believe P. Furthermore, when given not P the knower would believe not P. This works against externalists because if S, doesnt know about K, and K entails P, that does not change the fact that S believed P. Skeptics believe that due to logical entailment if K entails P and S doesnt know K then he doesnt actually know P. But Truth tracking evades this critique by holding that knowledge is not closed under logical implications. The believer would not believe P if P werent true, and just because K shows that not P, that shouldnt count against the believer knowing P in the way that he did. Nozicks knowledge is a real factual relation, subjectively specifiable, whose structure admits our standing in this relationship, tracking, to p without standing in it to some k which knows p to entail. Nozicks belief is that Philosophy should be non-coercive which puts him at ends with skeptics/externalists. With truth-tracking a knower avoids critiques based on justification by not needing a distinction between necessary truths and empirical truths.