Topics Knowledge

Question "If I know I am right, I am probably wrong." Is this a true statement?

Accepted:
November 6, 2005

Comments

No, at least not when taken literally. A necessarycondition for knowing some proposition is that one have good evidencefor that proposition. (What exactly that condition amounts to issomething you could spend the rest of your life inquiring into.) But ifone has good evidence for a proposition then it can't be that one'sprobably wrong, if what that means is that according to all theevidence at one's disposal the proposition's truth is unlikely.

Ofcourse, someone who says this is more likely simply trying to warn us against being overly confident about our judgments. So understood, pointtaken.

Another necessary condition for knowledge is truth: that's another reason why, if you really do know you are right, you can not probably be wrong. But the slogan 'if I think I know I am right, I am probably wrong' could be be true. And it could be true in at least two different ways: I could in fact be wrong, or I could in fact be right but not, as Alex points out, have good evidence. Lucky guesses aren't knowledge.

Question "If I know I am right, I am probably wrong." Is this a true statement? Accepted:November 6, 2005

Question "If I know I am right, I am probably wrong." Is this a true statement?

Accepted:
November 6, 2005