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causal theory of knowledge

Any theory which says that to know a truth one must believe it and one’s belief must stand in a certain causal relation to the truth itself.

For example, I know that Caesar crossed the Rubicon if his doing so caused some historian to write a book saying so, which caused my local library to buy it, which caused me to read and believe it.

The causal connection might be more complex than a simple chain, and the knower might have to make some inferences.

Objections include the case of timeless truths like those of mathematics, which do not seem to cause anything; and the possibility that the causal chain might be of the wrong sort, so that intuitively one would not say that here was a case of knowledge. (This entry ignores the distinction between facts and events).

Source:
A I Goldman, ‘A Causal Theory of Knowing’, Journal of Philosophy (1967)

Table of Contents

    • 0.1 Related:
  • 1 Videos
  • 2 Related Products
    • 2.1 Foundations Causal Decision Theory (Cambridge Studies in Probability, Induction and Decision Theory)
    • 2.2 Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits (Routledge Classics)
    • 2.3 Making Things Happen: A Theory of Causal Explanation (Oxford Studies in the Philosophy of Science)
    • 2.4 The Foundations of Causal Decision Theory (Cambridge Studies in Probability, Induction and Decision Theory)
    • 2.5 What Tends to Be: The Philosophy of Dispositional Modality
    • 2.6 What is Scientific Knowledge?
    • 2.7 Causal Theories of Mind (Grundlagen Der Kommunikation Und Kognition / Foundations of)
    • 2.8 Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market: The Scholar's Edition (LvMI)
    • 2.9 The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Medicine (Routledge Philosophy Companions)
    • 2.10 Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion

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