Epistemic minimalism is the

epistemological Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Episte ...

thesis that mere true belief is

sufficient In logic and mathematics, necessity and sufficiency are terms used to describe a conditional or implicational relationship between two statements. For example, in the conditional statement: "If then ", is necessary for , because the truth of ...

for

knowledge Knowledge can be defined as awareness of facts or as practical skills, and may also refer to familiarity with objects or situations. Knowledge of facts, also called propositional knowledge, is often defined as true belief that is disti ...

. That is, the ''meaning'' of "Smith knows that it rained today" is accurately and completely analyzed by these two conditions: # Smith believes that it rained today. # It is true that it rained today. The thesis is called ''minimalist'' by way of contrast with the competing accounts, which more or less universally require that true belief is necessary but insufficient for knowledge—that is, that a belief needs to be true in order to count as knowledge, but that truth alone is not enough—that ''something else'' is needed. Traditionally, that something else was held to be evidential

justification Justification may refer to: * Justification (epistemology), a property of beliefs that a person has good reasons for holding * Justification (jurisprudence), defence in a prosecution for a criminal offenses * Justification (theology), God's act of ...

; today it is usually held to be either justification ''and also'' some other condition, or else some other condition ''instead of'' justification, which will avoid the

Gettier problem The Gettier problem, in the field of epistemology, is a landmark philosophical problem concerning the understanding of descriptive knowledge. Attributed to American philosopher Edmund Gettier, Gettier-type counterexamples (called "Gettier-case ...

. Whatever the analysis, though, the standard view (both pre-Gettier and post-Gettier) pushes for ''narrower'' analyses of knowledge than mere true belief. Epistemic minimalism turns in exactly the opposite direction, and argues for a much more ''inclusive'' analysis--one which includes even Gettier cases, lucky guesses, and completely unjustified beliefs, as long as they happen to be true. The thesis is a ''minimalism'' in the sense that it eschews the additional requirements piled on top of true belief and argues that the intuitive reasons given for the

justified true belief Definitions of knowledge try to determine the essential features of knowledge. Closely related terms are conception of knowledge, theory of knowledge, and analysis of knowledge. Some general features of knowledge are widely accepted among philoso ...

(JTB) analysis and its descendants are either misleading or misunderstood. The most famous (or infamous) proponent of epistemic minimalism is

Crispin Sartwell Crispin Gallagher Sartwell (born 1958) is an American academic, philosopher, and journalist who is a faculty member of the philosophy department at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He has taught philosophy, communication, and politica ...

(1991). The view has been criticized by many epistemologists, with an influential criticism being delivered by

William Lycan William G. Lycan (; born September 26, 1945) is an American philosopher and professor emeritus at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was formerly the William Rand Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor. Since 2011, Lycan is also ...

(1994).

References

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Minimalism In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post–World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Do ...

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