Abstract:
Appearances notwithstanding, in this paper we do not discuss the Gettier problem.
The question at issue is whether one can be justified in believing a false proposition.
So, what is at stake is the relation between justified belief and falseness. In his famous
paper, Gettier presupposes explicitly that one can be justified in believing a false
proposition (Gettier’s “first point”). He makes essential use of this point in arguing
for his well-known Gettier cases. I will prove that this point, in Gettier’s robust reading,
is untenable since it leads to incompatible or contradictory consequences. It is
only in a much weaker sense than we find in Gettier’s paper that it seems possible to
be justified in believing a false proposition.
