Thursday, February 28, 2008

Why Justified True Beliefs?

Welcome. Why JTB? Because I equate intelligence with knowledge, which from a philosophical perspective is defined as a 'justified true belief'. Putting aside the notion of truth, I would argue that it would be difficult to disagree that intelligence officers form opinions which they believe are justified by virtue of the evidence they have gathered and the reasoning they have applied.

From that position we assert that our assessment represents a 'true' illustration of the situation or phenomena etc. This seems to make the criteria of truth redundant in the definition, buts its an important issue to retain, because if you dont believe your assessment is the 'truth' you shouldnt be putting it forward as an authoritative statement

Now, lets be having you then - I've started the argument, lets see where it goes.