Truth, fallibility and the growth of knowledge

Isaac Levi

pp. 153-174

in: Robert S. Cohen, Mark W. Wartofsky (eds), Language, logic and method, Berlin, Springer, 1983

Abstract

According to a familiar story, beliefs qualify as knowledge only if they can be justified on the basis of impeccable first premisses via equally immaculate first principles. The story has no truth to it. Centuries of criticism suggest that our interesting beliefs are born on the wrong side of the blanket.