Document Type : Scientific-research
Authors
1 Ph.D. Candidate of philosophical logic, Faculty of Literature and Human Sciences, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran.
2 Isfahan university
Abstract
The informational theory of knowledge is a theory proposed by Luciano Floridi in response to the failure of the tripartite definition of knowledge - "justified true belief" - in solving the Gettier problem. Based on the concept of semantic information, Floridi claims that his theory has succeeded in resolving the Gettier problem. Regardless of whether it has achieved its goal, Floridi's theory has provided a plausible explanation of the process of knowledge formation. One of Floridi's significant innovations in the theory is his view on "epistemic relevance," which demonstrates that knowledge is a label ascribed to semantic information relevant to the epistemic agent. In this article, while addressing the issue of epistemic relevance, we introduce various types of relevance—including subjective and objective—and by presenting a model for Gettier cases, we will show that "subjective relevance" is the main factor in the formation of these cases. Moreover, by reinterpreting the Gettier problem within the informational theory as the "problem of objective relevance," we will argue that the way to overcome this problem in the informational theory is to identify objectively relevant information. Subsequently, by introducing the "network theory of account" as the final condition for attaining knowledge, we examine Floridi's proposed solution to the Gettier problem, considering it an attempt to identify objective relevance. Finally, we critically evaluate Floridi's claim of having solved the Gettier problem and demonstrate that the network theory of account operates in a subjective manner and cannot achieve the identification of objective relevance.
Keywords
- Gettier problem
- Luciano Floridi
- semantic information
- epistemic relevance
- objective relevance
- account network
Main Subjects
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