How to Solve the Gettier Problem

Epistemology is that part of philosophy which studies knowledge, and tries to answer questions like: What is knowledge? How do we acquire knowledge? How do we know that we do in fact possess knowledge, i.e., how do we know that we know? The longest-standing formulation of the necessary and sufficient conditions for knowledge known to me (pre-dating Plato) is called the Justified True Belief [JTB] theory of knowledge. Gettier’s argument – if it goes through – is a relatively knock-down refutation of the JTB theory of knowledge. Since Gettier’s article was published in 1963, epistemologists have been scrambling either to “fix” JTB so that it avoids Gettier’s problem, to retreat into skepticism, or to erect brand new, Gettier-proof theories from scratch. My paper attempts to argue the first approach, that JTB can be fixed