Golden Gettier

Gettier constructed his well-known examples by assuming two things: (1) that the justification needed to know is the kind one can have for a false proposition; and (2) justificational closure— that justification is transmitted through known implication. I think both assumptions are false. Although I have elsewhere disputed (2), I will set that topic aside here. In this chapter I will, instead, challenge (1) by showing that if you accept (2), or any reasonable approximation to (2), you cannot accept (1). The justification needed to know must be conclusive, the kind of justification one cannot have for a false proposition.