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Chapter 2 - Nozick’s defense of closure

from Part I - Defenses, applications, explications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2012

Kelly Becker
Affiliation:
University of New Mexico
Tim Black
Affiliation:
California State University, Northridge
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Summary

Robert Nozick's conception of knowledge has triggered a lot of criticism over the last three decades. This chapter first argues that at least in many cases Nozick is not forced to deny common closure principles. Second, and much more importantly, Nozick does not, despite first and second appearances and despite his own words, deny closure. On the contrary, he is defending a more sophisticated and complex principle of closure. Nozick holds that a true belief constitutes knowledge just in case it stands in a certain modal relation to the fact that makes it true. The chapter explains why closure is not satisfying and proposes a modification. It argues that one can find a more satisfying principle in Nozick's text. This chapter discusses how this principle deals with relevant problem cases. Both Nozick-Knowledge and Nozick-Closure seem to give the wrong, negative verdict about knowledge.
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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2012

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