WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.980 Imagine you are walking down a hallway, right? 00:00:03.299 --> 00:00:05.240 And you just casually glance up at one of those 00:00:05.240 --> 00:00:08.439 classic analog wall clocks. Right, like the one 00:00:08.439 --> 00:00:11.919 in a school or an office. Exactly. And the hands 00:00:11.919 --> 00:00:14.720 say it is exactly 2 .00. You have an appointment 00:00:14.720 --> 00:00:17.160 at 2 .00, so you just think, great, I'm right 00:00:17.160 --> 00:00:19.679 on time. It is 2 .00. You firmly believe it. 00:00:19.780 --> 00:00:22.280 Because why wouldn't you? Exactly. And as it 00:00:22.280 --> 00:00:25.640 turns out, it actually is exactly 2 .00 in the 00:00:25.640 --> 00:00:28.649 real world. But what if you found out later that 00:00:28.649 --> 00:00:31.769 afternoon that this specific clock actually broke 00:00:31.769 --> 00:00:35.369 exactly 12 hours prior? Oh, wow. Yeah, the gears 00:00:35.369 --> 00:00:38.130 completely jammed at 2 a .m. So it's a fascinating 00:00:38.130 --> 00:00:40.990 like cognitive short circuit. You had a belief 00:00:40.990 --> 00:00:44.109 and that belief happened to be perfectly true. 00:00:44.130 --> 00:00:47.350 Yep. And looking at a clock that has always been 00:00:47.350 --> 00:00:49.600 reliable. is a perfectly sound reason to believe 00:00:49.600 --> 00:00:52.000 what time it is. But given the mechanical failure, 00:00:52.240 --> 00:00:54.259 did you actually know what time it was? And that 00:00:54.259 --> 00:00:57.079 is the absolute perfect setup for today's deep 00:00:57.079 --> 00:00:59.600 dive. We are taking a massive stack of philosophical 00:00:59.600 --> 00:01:02.200 research, and we are basically going to completely 00:01:02.200 --> 00:01:04.379 dismantle the very definition of the word knowledge. 00:01:04.540 --> 00:01:07.900 It is quite the mission. It really is. This specific 00:01:07.900 --> 00:01:11.129 puzzle, where you are right, but you are right 00:01:11.129 --> 00:01:13.870 for completely the wrong reasons, is known as 00:01:13.870 --> 00:01:16.349 the Gettier Problem. And, you know, this isn't 00:01:16.349 --> 00:01:19.930 just some academic wordplay. This single concept 00:01:19.930 --> 00:01:24.430 completely upended epistemology, which is the 00:01:24.430 --> 00:01:26.849 study of how we know what we know. Right. Because 00:01:26.849 --> 00:01:29.090 before we can debate facts or science or, I mean, 00:01:29.189 --> 00:01:32.109 just the daily news, we have to agree on a working 00:01:32.109 --> 00:01:34.510 definition of what knowledge actually is. Which 00:01:34.510 --> 00:01:37.510 seems pretty fundamental. Oh, totally. And this 00:01:37.510 --> 00:01:39.719 one puzzle... basically broke the definition 00:01:39.719 --> 00:01:41.659 the world had been relying on for thousands of 00:01:41.659 --> 00:01:44.219 years. Okay, so let's figure out what that baseline 00:01:44.219 --> 00:01:46.459 rule for knowledge was before everything just 00:01:46.459 --> 00:01:48.920 fell apart. Because intuitively, we all think 00:01:48.920 --> 00:01:51.120 we know what knowing something actually means. 00:01:51.239 --> 00:01:53.540 We do. We really do. And for centuries, going 00:01:53.540 --> 00:01:56.400 all the way back to Plato, The standard globally 00:01:56.400 --> 00:01:58.760 accepted definition of knowledge was a framework 00:01:58.760 --> 00:02:01.739 called justified true belief. Okay, justified 00:02:01.739 --> 00:02:04.599 true belief. Yeah, or JTB for short. It is basically 00:02:04.599 --> 00:02:07.299 a three -part checklist. To claim you genuinely 00:02:07.299 --> 00:02:09.919 know a fact, three conditions absolutely have 00:02:09.919 --> 00:02:11.800 to be met. Okay, lay them out for me. First, 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:14.120 the fact actually has to be true in objective 00:02:14.120 --> 00:02:17.520 reality. Second, you must genuinely believe it 00:02:17.520 --> 00:02:20.840 in your own mind. And third, you must have a 00:02:20.840 --> 00:02:23.319 valid logical justification for holding that 00:02:23.319 --> 00:02:27.280 belief. Okay, I'm picturing this like a high 00:02:27.280 --> 00:02:29.860 -security bank vault. Ooh, I like that. Yeah, 00:02:29.939 --> 00:02:32.439 like a vault that requires three separate keys 00:02:32.439 --> 00:02:34.759 and they all have to be turned at the exact same 00:02:34.759 --> 00:02:37.319 time to open the door to knowledge. Right, exactly. 00:02:37.360 --> 00:02:40.300 So if you have the belief key and you are totally 00:02:40.300 --> 00:02:43.740 justified because, say, you read a really convincing 00:02:43.740 --> 00:02:45.659 sci -fi book that the moon is made of cheese. 00:02:45.719 --> 00:02:48.280 Okay, yeah. The vault stays locked because you 00:02:48.280 --> 00:02:51.080 are missing the truth key. The moon isn't actually 00:02:51.080 --> 00:02:54.180 cheese. Right. And conversely, if you just, like, 00:02:54.360 --> 00:02:56.460 randomly guess the exact number of jelly beans 00:02:56.460 --> 00:02:58.780 in one of those massive glass jars at a carnival. 00:02:58.800 --> 00:03:00.860 Oh yeah, the guessing game. Yeah. So you might 00:03:00.860 --> 00:03:03.680 have the truth key and the belief key, but you 00:03:03.680 --> 00:03:06.000 have zero justification. Because you didn't count 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:07.819 them. Exactly. Just threw a random number out 00:03:07.819 --> 00:03:10.620 there. So the vault stays locked. You need all 00:03:10.620 --> 00:03:14.120 three keys simultaneously. Truth, belief, and 00:03:14.120 --> 00:03:17.379 justification. It makes total sense. So for a 00:03:17.379 --> 00:03:19.699 very long time, that three key vault was the 00:03:19.699 --> 00:03:23.180 gold standard. But wait, if this definition comes 00:03:23.180 --> 00:03:25.639 from ancient Greece, why does the literature 00:03:25.639 --> 00:03:28.919 call it the Gettier problem? That sounds, well, 00:03:29.180 --> 00:03:31.479 incredibly modern. It is modern, actually. Edmund 00:03:31.479 --> 00:03:34.020 Gettier published his defining work in the 1960s. 00:03:34.020 --> 00:03:36.599 Oh, OK. But the cracks in the vault actually 00:03:36.599 --> 00:03:39.610 appeared centuries earlier. brilliant thinkers 00:03:39.610 --> 00:03:41.490 across completely different cultures noticed 00:03:41.490 --> 00:03:44.469 that these three keys could sometimes align by 00:03:44.469 --> 00:03:47.610 you know pure cosmic accident. Right. There's 00:03:47.610 --> 00:03:49.750 this brilliant thought experiment from an eighth 00:03:49.750 --> 00:03:52.569 century Indian philosopher, Dharmatara, that 00:03:52.569 --> 00:03:54.629 perfectly illustrates how the human brain can 00:03:54.629 --> 00:03:57.110 be tricked by its own survival instincts. Oh, 00:03:57.150 --> 00:03:59.729 this is the desert mirage scenario from the sources. 00:03:59.969 --> 00:04:02.009 Yes, exactly. Let's look at the actual mechanics 00:04:02.009 --> 00:04:04.710 of this one. OK, so picture a traveler wandering 00:04:04.710 --> 00:04:07.009 through a scorching desert, completely out of 00:04:07.009 --> 00:04:10.069 water. They crest a hill, look down into a valley 00:04:10.069 --> 00:04:12.990 and see this shimmering, reflecting blue expanse. 00:04:13.110 --> 00:04:16.519 Right. Their visual cortex processes this and 00:04:16.519 --> 00:04:18.720 they form a belief there is water down there. 00:04:18.839 --> 00:04:21.259 So they have a belief key and they are highly 00:04:21.259 --> 00:04:23.560 justified because human eyes evolved to recognize 00:04:23.560 --> 00:04:25.680 water so they have the justification key too. 00:04:25.939 --> 00:04:28.160 They hike down into the valley. But the twist 00:04:28.160 --> 00:04:31.079 is that the shimmering blue expanse was just 00:04:31.079 --> 00:04:34.129 a mirage. Just a total optical illusion. Exactly. 00:04:34.230 --> 00:04:36.189 It was just light refracting off the hot sand. 00:04:36.410 --> 00:04:39.350 However, entirely by coincidence, when the traveler 00:04:39.350 --> 00:04:42.129 reaches the exact spot of the mirage and just 00:04:42.129 --> 00:04:44.670 collapses from exhaustion, they brush against 00:04:44.670 --> 00:04:48.170 a large rock. And hidden right underneath that 00:04:48.170 --> 00:04:51.829 specific rock is a real naturally occurring spring 00:04:51.829 --> 00:04:55.329 of water. So we pause and check the vault. Did 00:04:55.329 --> 00:04:57.550 the traveler have a belief that there was water? 00:04:57.819 --> 00:05:00.660 Yes, they did. Was it true that water was at 00:05:00.660 --> 00:05:03.899 that exact location? Yes. Was their belief justified? 00:05:04.439 --> 00:05:07.060 Yes, their sensory organs provided standard, 00:05:07.139 --> 00:05:09.500 reliable evidence. All three keys are turned. 00:05:10.339 --> 00:05:12.879 But the vault of knowledge shouldn't open, because 00:05:12.879 --> 00:05:15.079 the traveler was basically hallucinating. When 00:05:15.079 --> 00:05:16.639 they were standing on that hill looking at the 00:05:16.639 --> 00:05:18.560 heat waves, they didn't know the hidden spring 00:05:18.560 --> 00:05:20.829 was under the rock. Right. The visual evidence 00:05:20.829 --> 00:05:24.350 they relied on had absolutely zero physical connection 00:05:24.350 --> 00:05:26.209 to the actual water they found. They just got 00:05:26.209 --> 00:05:29.110 incredibly lucky. Which is deeply unsettling 00:05:29.110 --> 00:05:32.910 if you are trying to build a rigid, reliable 00:05:32.910 --> 00:05:36.930 system of logic. It really is. I mean, if a hallucination 00:05:36.930 --> 00:05:40.209 plus a lucky coincidence equals knowledge, the 00:05:40.209 --> 00:05:43.430 whole system is just... Flawed. Yet for hundreds 00:05:43.430 --> 00:05:45.610 of years, these scenarios were largely brushed 00:05:45.610 --> 00:05:48.790 off as, you know, just quirky anomalies like 00:05:48.790 --> 00:05:51.189 philosophical parlor tricks. Interesting. Yeah, 00:05:51.189 --> 00:05:55.629 it wasn't until 1963 that Edmund Gettier formalized 00:05:55.629 --> 00:05:58.250 this glitch into a literal weapon that broke 00:05:58.250 --> 00:06:00.730 epistemology. And he did it in a tiny paper, 00:06:00.730 --> 00:06:02.769 right? Like a three page paper. Literally three 00:06:02.769 --> 00:06:05.509 pages. In the academic world, three pages is 00:06:05.509 --> 00:06:07.230 essentially a pamphlet. That's hilarious. But 00:06:07.230 --> 00:06:09.610 he didn't just tell a story about a desert wanderer. 00:06:09.670 --> 00:06:12.819 He's cold. deductive logic to prove that our 00:06:12.819 --> 00:06:14.620 brains can follow all the rules of reasoning 00:06:14.620 --> 00:06:17.459 perfectly and still end up entirely detached 00:06:17.459 --> 00:06:19.720 from reality. Okay, let's unpack this. He presented 00:06:19.720 --> 00:06:22.240 a few highly specific counter examples. Let's 00:06:22.240 --> 00:06:24.399 examine the mechanics of his first one because 00:06:24.399 --> 00:06:26.699 it mimics the exact kind of deductive reasoning 00:06:26.699 --> 00:06:29.360 we use every single day in the workplace. Alright, 00:06:29.360 --> 00:06:31.699 we have a guy named Smith. Smith applies for 00:06:31.699 --> 00:06:34.180 a corporate job. After the interview, the president 00:06:34.180 --> 00:06:36.680 of the company pulls Smith aside and says, point 00:06:36.680 --> 00:06:39.779 blank, listen, we are giving the job to the other 00:06:39.779 --> 00:06:43.069 candidate. Jones. Ouch. Yeah, rough day for Smith. 00:06:43.629 --> 00:06:45.790 But earlier that morning, Smith happened to be 00:06:45.790 --> 00:06:47.610 standing next to Jones at a vending machine, 00:06:47.709 --> 00:06:51.129 and he literally watched Jones count out exactly 00:06:51.129 --> 00:06:54.449 10 coins from his pocket. So Smith's brain does 00:06:54.449 --> 00:06:57.029 what human brains are built to do. It synthesizes 00:06:57.029 --> 00:06:59.509 the evidence. Right. Smith takes fact A, which 00:06:59.509 --> 00:07:02.949 is Jones is getting the job, and fact B, Jones 00:07:02.949 --> 00:07:06.629 has 10 coins, and he merges them into a single 00:07:07.120 --> 00:07:09.899 Logical deduction. The man who will get the job 00:07:09.899 --> 00:07:12.920 has 10 coins in his pocket. And he is entirely 00:07:12.920 --> 00:07:15.500 justified in this belief. Right. He has the CEO's 00:07:15.500 --> 00:07:18.360 verbal confirmation and he has his own direct 00:07:18.360 --> 00:07:20.819 visual count of the coins. But here's where the 00:07:20.819 --> 00:07:22.980 universe plays a prank on logic. The president 00:07:22.980 --> 00:07:25.779 of the company was actually mistaken or perhaps 00:07:25.779 --> 00:07:28.180 HR just overruled him at the last minute. The 00:07:28.180 --> 00:07:31.560 classic HR pivot. Exactly. So it turns out Smith 00:07:31.560 --> 00:07:34.300 is the one who actually gets the job. OK. And. 00:07:34.540 --> 00:07:37.000 Completely unbeknownst to Smith, he happens to 00:07:37.000 --> 00:07:39.480 have exactly 10 coins in his own pocket that 00:07:39.480 --> 00:07:42.019 day. Oh my God, the ultimate cosmic coincidence. 00:07:42.220 --> 00:07:44.420 Right. But let's run it through the bank vault. 00:07:45.339 --> 00:07:48.300 Smith's core belief is the man who will get the 00:07:48.300 --> 00:07:52.079 job has 10 coins in his pocket. Is that statement 00:07:52.079 --> 00:07:54.980 true? Well, yes. Smith gets the job and Smith 00:07:54.980 --> 00:07:57.600 has 10 coins. Does he believe it? Yes, he does. 00:07:57.699 --> 00:08:00.199 Is he justified? Absolutely. He has eyewitness 00:08:00.199 --> 00:08:02.860 evidence and the CEO's word. Three keys turned. 00:08:03.290 --> 00:08:06.189 But again, it is undeniably clear that Smith 00:08:06.189 --> 00:08:09.149 does not possess actual knowledge. His belief 00:08:09.149 --> 00:08:12.129 became true purely because of dumb luck. Yeah, 00:08:12.269 --> 00:08:14.370 the logical chain in his head was attached to 00:08:14.370 --> 00:08:16.769 the wrong person entirely. Exactly. It's like 00:08:16.769 --> 00:08:19.269 doing a complex algebra equation, carrying all 00:08:19.269 --> 00:08:21.350 the wrong numbers, accidentally using the wrong 00:08:21.350 --> 00:08:23.870 formula, but somehow arriving at the exact correct 00:08:23.870 --> 00:08:26.389 final answer by sheer mistake. Yes. You got the 00:08:26.389 --> 00:08:27.810 right number, but you definitely don't know the 00:08:27.810 --> 00:08:31.550 math. And this realization just sent absolute 00:08:31.550 --> 00:08:33.649 panic through the philosophical community in 00:08:33.649 --> 00:08:36.870 the 1960s. I bet. Because if deductive logic, 00:08:37.049 --> 00:08:40.110 which is the most rigid tool we have, can betray 00:08:40.110 --> 00:08:42.789 us so perfectly, they realized they needed to 00:08:42.789 --> 00:08:45.129 patch the definition of knowledge immediately. 00:08:45.250 --> 00:08:47.639 Well... My initial thought when reviewing the 00:08:47.639 --> 00:08:50.440 research was that the fix seems, honestly, incredibly 00:08:50.440 --> 00:08:52.779 obvious. Oh, yeah. What's your fix? The problem 00:08:52.779 --> 00:08:55.139 with Smith's deduction is that he relied on a 00:08:55.139 --> 00:08:58.279 false stepping stone. He built his entire logic 00:08:58.279 --> 00:09:00.519 on the false premise that Jones was getting the 00:09:00.519 --> 00:09:03.159 job. True. So to fix the bank fault, we just 00:09:03.159 --> 00:09:05.919 add a fourth key. Knowledge is justified true 00:09:05.919 --> 00:09:07.960 belief as long as your justification doesn't 00:09:07.960 --> 00:09:10.340 rely on any false premises. OK. You can't use 00:09:10.340 --> 00:09:12.820 a lie or a mistake to build your truth. Done. 00:09:13.080 --> 00:09:15.259 Problem solved. Right. That was exactly the first 00:09:15.259 --> 00:09:17.340 defense the academic community tried to mount. 00:09:17.720 --> 00:09:19.779 They called it the no false premises rule. Oh, 00:09:19.840 --> 00:09:23.059 nice. So I'm basically a 1960s philosopher. Basically. 00:09:23.320 --> 00:09:26.240 It seems perfectly rational. But the human mind 00:09:26.240 --> 00:09:28.779 is much more complex than step by step logic. 00:09:28.990 --> 00:09:31.970 We don't always build arguments premise by premise. 00:09:32.330 --> 00:09:34.470 Sometimes we just open our eyes and perceive 00:09:34.470 --> 00:09:37.409 things instantly. Oh, wait. Meaning there's no 00:09:37.409 --> 00:09:39.750 time to form a logical stepping stone. You just 00:09:39.750 --> 00:09:42.830 look, you process, and you believe all in a fraction 00:09:42.830 --> 00:09:45.700 of a second. Precisely. Philosophers realized 00:09:45.700 --> 00:09:48.059 that if deductive reasoning was patched, they 00:09:48.059 --> 00:09:51.159 could just bypass logic entirely and attack raw 00:09:51.159 --> 00:09:54.019 perception. Oh boy. And they created these scenarios 00:09:54.019 --> 00:09:57.200 that are frankly terrifying if you value your 00:09:57.200 --> 00:09:59.840 own senses. Let's use the hologram scenario from 00:09:59.840 --> 00:10:01.960 the sources because it perfectly captures how 00:10:01.960 --> 00:10:04.500 raw perception can fail us. Yes, this is a great 00:10:04.500 --> 00:10:07.080 one. Imagine a college student named Luke who 00:10:07.080 --> 00:10:09.759 desperately needs help studying for a test. He 00:10:09.759 --> 00:10:12.139 walks over to his friend Mark's office. Luke 00:10:12.139 --> 00:10:15.080 opens the door, looks inside, and clearly sees 00:10:15.080 --> 00:10:17.279 Mark sitting at his desk reading a textbook. 00:10:17.700 --> 00:10:19.779 Okay, so Luke instantly forms the belief, Mark 00:10:19.779 --> 00:10:22.019 is in the room, he can help me. Right, and Luke 00:10:22.019 --> 00:10:24.419 didn't deduce this. He didn't combine fact A 00:10:24.419 --> 00:10:27.220 and fact B. His optical nerves simply delivered 00:10:27.220 --> 00:10:30.159 an image to his brain. And his justification 00:10:30.159 --> 00:10:33.639 is rock solid. I mean, he is staring right at 00:10:33.639 --> 00:10:36.220 his friend. But the visual evidence is a complete 00:10:36.220 --> 00:10:38.700 fabrication. Exactly. It's a high definition 00:10:38.700 --> 00:10:41.539 3D hologram of Mark that someone left running 00:10:41.539 --> 00:10:44.340 on a projector. So the evidence Luke is relying 00:10:44.340 --> 00:10:47.980 on is totally fake. But to make this work, we 00:10:47.980 --> 00:10:50.860 have to make the belief true. to complete the 00:10:50.860 --> 00:10:53.740 Gettier trap. Right, right. So completely independent 00:10:53.740 --> 00:10:56.379 of the hologram, Mark actually is in the room. 00:10:56.659 --> 00:10:59.379 That's perfect. He dropped a pen, and it's currently 00:10:59.379 --> 00:11:01.620 crouched under the desk, completely hidden from 00:11:01.620 --> 00:11:04.259 Luke's view, trying to find it. OK, let's check 00:11:04.259 --> 00:11:06.879 the vault again. Luke's belief that Mark is in 00:11:06.879 --> 00:11:10.700 the room is true. It is highly justified by clear 00:11:10.700 --> 00:11:13.759 visual evidence. Yep. And crucially, it doesn't 00:11:13.759 --> 00:11:16.139 rely on a false logical premise. because there 00:11:16.139 --> 00:11:19.279 was no logical deduction. It was pure, instantaneous 00:11:19.279 --> 00:11:21.539 perception. But it absolutely is not knowledge. 00:11:21.620 --> 00:11:23.600 He is being tricked by a laser beam and saved 00:11:23.600 --> 00:11:26.000 by a dropped pen. If the definition of knowledge 00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:28.639 can be broken this easily, even when we strip 00:11:28.639 --> 00:11:31.320 away false logic and rely purely on our own eyeballs, 00:11:31.899 --> 00:11:34.440 how do we ever define certainty? It feels like 00:11:34.440 --> 00:11:36.240 we're just waiting for a software patch that 00:11:36.240 --> 00:11:39.100 will never actually work. The underlying issue 00:11:39.100 --> 00:11:41.759 here is the massive gap between our internal 00:11:41.759 --> 00:11:46.090 minds and external reality. A philosopher actually 00:11:46.090 --> 00:11:48.929 formalized a recipe that proves you can generate 00:11:48.929 --> 00:11:51.549 an infinite number of these scenarios to break 00:11:51.549 --> 00:11:54.210 almost any definition of knowledge. Wait, a recipe? 00:11:54.370 --> 00:11:57.539 How does that work? It's remarkably simple. First, 00:11:57.700 --> 00:11:59.500 you start with a situation where someone has 00:11:59.500 --> 00:12:02.559 a highly justified but technically false belief. 00:12:02.799 --> 00:12:05.620 Like looking at a hologram. Right. Second, you 00:12:05.620 --> 00:12:07.860 inject a dose of bad luck to ensure the evidence 00:12:07.860 --> 00:12:10.419 they're relying on is completely useless. Okay. 00:12:10.720 --> 00:12:13.019 And third, you inject a dose of good luck to 00:12:13.019 --> 00:12:14.960 make their belief accidentally true again in 00:12:14.960 --> 00:12:17.559 the real world, completely independent of their 00:12:17.559 --> 00:12:20.500 original evidence. Wow. So bad luck cancels the 00:12:20.500 --> 00:12:23.159 justification and then good luck forces the truth. 00:12:23.320 --> 00:12:25.980 You got it. It's like a cosmic bait and switch. 00:12:26.379 --> 00:12:29.080 So if banning false premises doesn't work because 00:12:29.080 --> 00:12:32.100 perception just bypasses it, what was the next 00:12:32.100 --> 00:12:34.700 desperate attempt to fix the definition? Well, 00:12:34.720 --> 00:12:38.220 the next phase involved trying to invent incredibly 00:12:38.220 --> 00:12:41.200 complex fourth keys for the vault. Like what? 00:12:41.440 --> 00:12:43.779 One of the most famous attempts focused on the 00:12:43.779 --> 00:12:46.279 concept of truth tracking. The idea was that 00:12:46.279 --> 00:12:49.100 for a belief to be actual knowledge, it must 00:12:49.100 --> 00:12:51.639 act like a heat -seeking missile locked onto 00:12:51.639 --> 00:12:54.960 the truth. If the truth moves, your belief must 00:12:54.960 --> 00:12:57.419 move with it. OK, that makes intuitive sense. 00:12:57.860 --> 00:12:59.799 So the rule would be if the fact weren't true, 00:12:59.940 --> 00:13:01.799 you wouldn't believe it. Your mind is perfectly 00:13:01.799 --> 00:13:04.559 sensitive to the reality of the situation. Exactly. 00:13:04.659 --> 00:13:06.919 It's called Robert Nozick's truth tracking. So 00:13:06.919 --> 00:13:09.480 let's test it. In the hologram scenario, if Mark 00:13:09.480 --> 00:13:11.539 wasn't in the room, would Luke still believe 00:13:11.539 --> 00:13:14.620 he was? Yes, because the hologram would still 00:13:14.620 --> 00:13:17.620 be there tricking him. Right. So his belief isn't 00:13:17.620 --> 00:13:20.100 tracking the truth, it's tracking the hologram. 00:13:20.340 --> 00:13:22.460 Therefore, under this new rule, Luke doesn't 00:13:22.460 --> 00:13:24.700 have knowledge. The rule works. It seems to work 00:13:24.700 --> 00:13:27.080 beautifully, doesn't it? Until you test its boundaries. 00:13:27.519 --> 00:13:30.340 Let's put you in a car, driving through a rural 00:13:30.340 --> 00:13:33.539 countryside. You look out the window, and you 00:13:33.539 --> 00:13:36.639 see a bright red barn. Okay. You form the belief, 00:13:37.100 --> 00:13:40.399 I see a red barn. And it is a real barn. and 00:13:40.399 --> 00:13:43.179 it is painted red. Okay. I have truth, belief, 00:13:43.639 --> 00:13:45.799 and visual justification. Now, unbeknownst to 00:13:45.799 --> 00:13:49.059 you, you are driving through a bizarre movie 00:13:49.059 --> 00:13:51.879 set. Every other structure in this entire county 00:13:51.879 --> 00:13:55.899 is a fake cardboard barn facade propped up by 00:13:55.899 --> 00:13:58.360 two -by -fours. This is the fake barn scenario. 00:13:58.519 --> 00:14:00.580 Yep. If you had looked at any of the other 50 00:14:00.580 --> 00:14:02.720 buildings on this road, you would have been completely 00:14:02.720 --> 00:14:06.240 fooled. But the fake barns are all unpainted 00:14:06.240 --> 00:14:09.419 wood. Only the one real barn happens to be painted 00:14:09.419 --> 00:14:11.740 red. Okay, so I just happen to look at the one 00:14:11.740 --> 00:14:14.100 genuine article in a sea of fakes. Let's apply 00:14:14.100 --> 00:14:16.240 the truth tracking rule. Does my belief track 00:14:16.240 --> 00:14:18.500 the truth? Does it? Well, if the barn wasn't 00:14:18.500 --> 00:14:20.360 red, I wouldn't believe it was a red barn because 00:14:20.360 --> 00:14:23.679 none of the fakes are red. I'm successfully tracking 00:14:23.679 --> 00:14:26.639 the color. So I know I see a red barn. Correct. 00:14:26.879 --> 00:14:29.240 Under the strict rules of truth tracking, you 00:14:29.240 --> 00:14:31.419 possess the knowledge that you are looking at 00:14:31.419 --> 00:14:34.019 a red barn. But now let's ask a broader question. 00:14:34.379 --> 00:14:37.100 Do you know that you are looking at a barn? Well, 00:14:37.120 --> 00:14:40.000 let's run the test. If it wasn't a barn, if it 00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:42.059 was one of the cardboard fakes, would I still 00:14:42.059 --> 00:14:45.159 believe I was looking at a barn? Yes. Yes, because 00:14:45.159 --> 00:14:47.320 the fakes are designed to trick me, so my belief 00:14:47.320 --> 00:14:49.919 is not tracking the concept of a barn. Which 00:14:49.919 --> 00:14:53.500 leads to an absolute logical nightmare. Wait. 00:14:53.740 --> 00:14:56.679 According to this theory, you know you are looking 00:14:56.679 --> 00:15:00.820 at a red barn, but you do not know you are looking 00:15:00.820 --> 00:15:03.259 at a barn. That completely breaks my brain. You 00:15:03.259 --> 00:15:05.620 cannot separate those two concepts. Oh no, it's 00:15:05.620 --> 00:15:08.159 wild. If I know I am holding a golden retriever, 00:15:08.259 --> 00:15:10.720 it is mathematically impossible for me not to 00:15:10.720 --> 00:15:13.299 know that I am holding a dog. What you're describing 00:15:13.299 --> 00:15:16.559 is a fundamental principle called epistemic closure. 00:15:16.759 --> 00:15:18.879 Epistemic closure, okay. It's the common sense 00:15:18.879 --> 00:15:21.799 rule that if you know a highly specific fact, 00:15:22.139 --> 00:15:25.639 you automatically know the obvious, broader categories 00:15:25.639 --> 00:15:28.639 that fact belongs to. But to save the definition 00:15:28.639 --> 00:15:31.500 of knowledge using truth tracking, Philosophers 00:15:31.500 --> 00:15:34.740 were forced to reject epistemic closure entirely. 00:15:35.000 --> 00:15:37.740 They had to break basic human logic just to keep 00:15:37.740 --> 00:15:39.879 the bank vault from falling apart? Basically, 00:15:40.059 --> 00:15:42.419 yeah. If the cure is worse than the disease, 00:15:42.879 --> 00:15:45.059 maybe the definition of knowledge is just prominently 00:15:45.059 --> 00:15:48.139 broken. If we can't find a fourth key without 00:15:48.139 --> 00:15:50.899 destroying common sense, where does that leave 00:15:50.899 --> 00:15:53.879 us? Well, it left the academic world completely 00:15:53.879 --> 00:15:56.809 fractured. Because if every attempt to define 00:15:56.809 --> 00:15:59.529 the threshold of certainty fails, you are naturally 00:15:59.529 --> 00:16:01.389 pushed toward two extreme ends of the spectrum. 00:16:01.690 --> 00:16:04.669 Let me guess. One extreme is giving up entirely. 00:16:05.090 --> 00:16:07.700 Exactly. the camp of radical skepticism. Okay. 00:16:07.899 --> 00:16:10.240 They argue that because our sensory evidence 00:16:10.240 --> 00:16:12.419 and our logical deductions can never guarantee 00:16:12.419 --> 00:16:16.200 the absolute 100 % truth of a situation, you 00:16:16.200 --> 00:16:18.360 know, because there's always a chance of a hologram 00:16:18.360 --> 00:16:20.860 or a mirage or a fake barn. Right. There's always 00:16:20.860 --> 00:16:23.299 some loophole. Yeah. So we essentially know nothing 00:16:23.299 --> 00:16:25.700 at all. True knowledge is practically impossible 00:16:25.700 --> 00:16:27.840 for a human being to achieve. Which feels like 00:16:27.840 --> 00:16:30.919 a massive cop out. He does. If we accept that 00:16:30.919 --> 00:16:32.879 we know nothing, we can't build airplanes, we 00:16:32.879 --> 00:16:35.059 can't perform surgeries, we can't function, we 00:16:35.059 --> 00:16:37.679 clearly know some things. Right. So what is the 00:16:37.679 --> 00:16:40.860 opposing extreme? If skepticism sets the bar 00:16:40.860 --> 00:16:43.720 impossibly high, does the other side just drop 00:16:43.720 --> 00:16:46.320 the bar completely? They remove the bar entirely. 00:16:47.240 --> 00:16:50.480 This camp argues that the whole concept of justification 00:16:50.480 --> 00:16:52.419 was a mistake from the beginning. Wait, what? 00:16:52.720 --> 00:16:55.259 Yeah, it's called epistemic minimalism. They 00:16:55.259 --> 00:16:57.980 claim that every true belief is knowledge. Full 00:16:57.980 --> 00:17:01.519 stop. even a totally blind, unjustified guess. 00:17:01.679 --> 00:17:04.920 Yes. If you buy a lottery ticket and you firmly 00:17:04.920 --> 00:17:07.099 believe you are going to win, and you actually 00:17:07.099 --> 00:17:10.220 do win, this camp argues that you knew you were 00:17:10.220 --> 00:17:12.400 going to win. The fact that you lacked evidence 00:17:12.400 --> 00:17:15.619 is irrelevant. The truth and the belief aligned. 00:17:16.140 --> 00:17:18.519 Therefore, it was knowledge. Okay. Both of those 00:17:18.519 --> 00:17:21.400 extremes feel incredibly unsatisfying. They really 00:17:21.400 --> 00:17:23.519 do. It's either we are all stumbling in the dark 00:17:23.519 --> 00:17:26.180 knowing absolutely nothing, or we're handing 00:17:26.180 --> 00:17:29.430 out gold stars for dumb luck. How does the average 00:17:29.430 --> 00:17:31.769 person reconcile this? Because when we talk about 00:17:31.769 --> 00:17:34.089 holograms and fake barns, it can feel like a 00:17:34.089 --> 00:17:36.789 total parlor trick. Do normal people actually 00:17:36.789 --> 00:17:39.369 care about the nuances of these scenarios? That 00:17:39.369 --> 00:17:41.829 is a crucial question. And cognitive scientists 00:17:41.829 --> 00:17:43.849 actually went out into the field to answer it. 00:17:44.029 --> 00:17:46.289 Oh, really? Yeah. For a long time, there was 00:17:46.289 --> 00:17:48.670 an assumption that maybe this entire debate was 00:17:48.670 --> 00:17:52.150 just a quirk of Western academic overthinking. 00:17:52.319 --> 00:17:54.740 Right, like maybe someone from a completely different 00:17:54.740 --> 00:17:56.720 cultural background would look at the desert 00:17:56.720 --> 00:17:58.619 wanderer who found the hidden spring and say, 00:17:59.180 --> 00:18:01.579 yeah, he knew the water was there, his intuition 00:18:01.579 --> 00:18:05.400 guided him, the universe provided. Exactly. Researchers 00:18:05.400 --> 00:18:08.079 wondered if the strict demand for logical justification 00:18:08.079 --> 00:18:11.230 was just cultural. So they tested these exact 00:18:11.230 --> 00:18:14.109 types of scenarios on people from vastly different 00:18:14.109 --> 00:18:16.750 demographics, languages, and cultures all over 00:18:16.750 --> 00:18:18.869 the globe. And what happened? What did they find? 00:18:18.990 --> 00:18:21.990 The results were incredibly uniform. People everywhere, 00:18:22.329 --> 00:18:24.730 regardless of their background, shared the exact 00:18:24.730 --> 00:18:28.279 same cognitive intuition. Really? Yes. When presented 00:18:28.279 --> 00:18:30.220 with someone who gets the right answer through 00:18:30.220 --> 00:18:33.180 sheer luck or a flawed process, human beings 00:18:33.180 --> 00:18:35.779 globally agree, it feels intrinsically wrong 00:18:35.779 --> 00:18:37.839 to call that knowledge. Why do you think we are 00:18:37.839 --> 00:18:40.619 so universally hardwired to reject lucky guesses? 00:18:40.940 --> 00:18:44.000 Because from an evolutionary standpoint, human 00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:47.059 survival relies on repeatability. Ah, that makes 00:18:47.059 --> 00:18:49.759 sense. If an early human found a berry bush, 00:18:49.980 --> 00:18:51.859 because they tracked footprints and understood 00:18:51.859 --> 00:18:54.619 the seasons, that is a reliable process they 00:18:54.619 --> 00:18:57.420 can use again tomorrow. That is highly valuable. 00:18:57.480 --> 00:18:59.839 Right. If they found a berry bush because they 00:18:59.839 --> 00:19:01.839 tripped over a log while running away in a panic 00:19:01.839 --> 00:19:05.720 from a predator, that is luck. It isn't repeatable. 00:19:05.900 --> 00:19:08.940 It's a fluke. Our brains evolved to crave reliable 00:19:08.940 --> 00:19:13.460 processes, not just true outcomes. We instinctively 00:19:13.460 --> 00:19:15.539 know the difference between genuine understanding 00:19:15.539 --> 00:19:18.220 and getting bailed out by a cosmic loophole. 00:19:18.339 --> 00:19:20.880 That makes so much sense. We demand that justification 00:19:20.880 --> 00:19:22.900 key because we want to know we can open the vault 00:19:22.900 --> 00:19:25.720 again tomorrow. Exactly. It really exposes how 00:19:25.720 --> 00:19:28.420 fragile the relationship is between our internal 00:19:28.420 --> 00:19:30.880 minds and objective reality. You can have the 00:19:30.880 --> 00:19:32.400 facts right, you can have your reasons lined 00:19:32.400 --> 00:19:34.960 up perfectly, your sensory organs can be functioning 00:19:34.960 --> 00:19:37.799 flawlessly, and the universe can still just pull 00:19:37.799 --> 00:19:40.180 the rug out from under you. The Gettier Problem 00:19:40.180 --> 00:19:43.160 is ultimately a profoundly humbling reminder 00:19:43.160 --> 00:19:46.730 of the limits of human certainty. If we connect 00:19:46.730 --> 00:19:49.769 this to the bigger picture, it forces us to constantly 00:19:49.769 --> 00:19:52.690 audit the foundation of our beliefs and to recognize 00:19:52.690 --> 00:19:55.450 the chaotic role that luck, timing, and hidden 00:19:55.450 --> 00:19:57.569 variables play in our perception of reality. 00:20:01.849 --> 00:20:04.349 all need to confront. The philosophers in the 00:20:04.349 --> 00:20:07.630 1960s had to invent these absurd scenarios like 00:20:07.630 --> 00:20:10.250 fake barns and perfectly timed holograms just 00:20:10.250 --> 00:20:12.569 to trick the human brain. But we don't have to 00:20:12.569 --> 00:20:14.710 invent them anymore. No, we live in them. Exactly. 00:20:15.029 --> 00:20:17.210 Think about the digital landscape we navigate 00:20:17.210 --> 00:20:20.069 every single day. We are surrounded by deep fake 00:20:20.069 --> 00:20:22.630 videos that are entirely indistinguishable from 00:20:22.630 --> 00:20:25.450 reality. Oh, absolutely. We read articles generated 00:20:25.450 --> 00:20:28.690 by AI hallucinations that sound perfectly authoritative. 00:20:29.150 --> 00:20:31.970 We are fed algorithmic news timelines that curate 00:20:31.970 --> 00:20:35.170 a highly specific, justified, yet entirely distorted 00:20:35.170 --> 00:20:37.529 view of the world. They are the digital equivalents 00:20:37.529 --> 00:20:40.160 of the desert mirage. perfectly engineered to 00:20:40.160 --> 00:20:42.400 bypass our logical defenses. So I want to leave 00:20:42.400 --> 00:20:44.460 you with a thought to mull over as you navigate 00:20:44.460 --> 00:20:46.920 your week. It's a good one. When you scroll through 00:20:46.920 --> 00:20:50.019 your feed, read a headline, watch a video, and 00:20:50.019 --> 00:20:53.359 form highly justified, very true, belief in this 00:20:53.359 --> 00:20:56.200 modern age of engineered illusions, how much 00:20:56.200 --> 00:20:59.059 of what you claim to absolutely know today is 00:20:59.059 --> 00:21:01.279 actually built on a solid foundation, and how 00:21:01.279 --> 00:21:04.299 much is just a lucky coincidence? A vital question 00:21:04.299 --> 00:21:06.599 to keep asking ourselves. Because remember, just 00:21:06.599 --> 00:21:09.140 because the clock on the wall says 2 .0 and it 00:21:09.140 --> 00:21:11.640 really is 2 .00, well that doesn't mean the gears 00:21:11.640 --> 00:21:14.019 aren't broken. Exactly. Thanks for diving deep 00:21:14.019 --> 00:21:14.640 with us today.