1. Re-cap…
Fill in the blanks with either ‘necessary’, ‘sufficient’ or ‘necessary and sufficient’:
Having four sides is _________ for being a square.
Being a square is __________ for having four sides.
Having three straight sides is ___________ for being a triangle.
necessary
sufficient
Necessary and sufficient
3 mins Pupils can talk to the person next to them and after we go through the answers we will discuss whether the class understand the meanings of the terms.

2. Re-cap… are the three conditions for knowledge, according to the Justified True Belief account of knowledge, individually necessary?
The justification condition is not necessary.
The belief condition is not necessary for knowledge.
The truth condition is not necessary for knowledge.
The justification condition is necessary.
The truth condition is necessary for knowledge.
The belief condition is necessary for knowledge.
Finish reading the information you were given in order to complete the questions on the justification condition.
(20 mins) 5 mins to read, 5 mins justification, 5 mins truth, 5 mins belief Pupils read the justification sheet and are given about 7 minutes to answer the questions. I will then choose pupils to outline the argument that the justification condition is not necessary for knowledge before giving the counter view. I will also ask for feedback for all the questions on their question sheet. This will be repeated for all three conditions.

3. Do you think that the three conditions for knowledge are individually necessary?
(3 mins) Pupils will show thumbs according to their view. (agree even if they think only one condition is not necessary). Will get pupils to stand up, justify their view and debate in the class.

4. Issues: Are the JTB conditions for knowledge jointly sufficient?
Learning Objectives:
To analyse whether the JTB conditions for knowledge are sufficient.
To understand and analyse Gettier- type objections to the tripartite view of knowledge.
2 mins

5. Do you think that the JTB conditions for knowledge are jointly sufficient?
be prepared to justify your point of view. No
Yes
Colin is going out with Simone. However at a party he kisses Fiona. No one sees a thing. Back at college Nigel is secretly in love with Simone. To try to get them to split up he makes up a rumour, telling Brian that Colin and Fiona got off at the party. Later Charlie hears this rumour and believes it.
5 mins
Does reminding yourself of this example change your opinion at all?

6. Gettier Counter-Examples
In 1963 Edmund Gettier ( ) published a short paper entitled ‘Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?’
It purported to give examples of beliefs which are both true and apparently justified but which we are inclined not to count as examples of knowledge.
If he had indeed discovered such counter-examples then this would show that the three conditions were not sufficient for knowledge.
Read the text – how is the example of Smith and Jones a criticism of the sufficiency of the JTB theory?
10 mins Read through Gettier’s text with the pupils (maybe read it out together as a class then get them to read it again in silence): get the pupils to annotate the text and then ask the pupils to explain how Gettier’s example of Smith and Jones is a criticism of the sufficiency of the JTB conditions for knowledge.

7. Gettier Counter-Examples
Read the Gettier-style counter-examples on the back of your sheet and answer the corresponding questions, finishing with the task of coming up with your own Gettier-style counter-example.
Be prepared to share your Gettier-style counter example with the class and we will have a vote for our favourite at the end of the lesson!
12 mins Tell pupils that they can answer the questions after reading all the Gettier style counter examples (don’t need to answer the questions for each example in turn).

8. Homework (due next lesson)
Read pp of the Lacewing textbook for a simplified version of Gettier’s argument.
Answer this 9 mark question:
Outline and explain Gettier’s objection to the tripartite theory of knowledge.
2 mins Give pupils mark scheme

9. Consequences of Gettier cases:
How must the analysis of knowledge be modified to make it immune to Gettier cases?
Epistemologists who think that the JTB approach is basically on the right track must choose between two different strategies for solving the Gettier problem.
The first is to strengthen the justification condition to rule out Gettier cases as cases of justified belief.
The other is to amend the JTB analysis with a suitable fourth condition, a condition that succeeds in preventing justified true belief from being “gettiered.” Thus amended, the JTB analysis becomes a JTB+X account of knowledge, where the ‘X’ stands for the needed fourth condition.
3 mins

10. Gettier cases competition!
We are now going to hear the example Gettier cases you came up with, assess whether they are good examples of Gettier cases and vote for our favourite.
Start with this next time if we don’t get round to it.