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  • Essay / Robert Nozick's theory of knowledge tracking in...

    In his “Philosophical Explanations”, Robert Nozick produced his theory of knowledge tracking. This externalist theory is used to explain how, through the search for truth, we can obtain knowledge. He states that what we use to learn the truth is method. But Nozick denies the importance of methods in his theory, to the point that he does not even believe it is necessary to know what the method is. Instead, Nozick allows us to use any method we want, as long as we only use one. But not all methods are reliable, and therefore do not allow us to justify ourselves. As such, Nozick's theory fails because it does not limit the methods that can be used, with the result that if we follow the theory we will not necessarily obtain knowledge but only true belief. The knowledge tracking theory has four stages. The first step is that a proposition is true. The second step is that someone believes the proposition. He asserts that a connection between truth and belief serves as justification. This connection corresponds to steps three and four. The third step is that if the proposition is false, then no one will believe it. While the fourth step states that if the proposition is true, then someone will believe it. An additional fifth step is added later in the text which states that we should only use one method to acquire knowledge, because two or more methods may contradict each other and not allow us to have a good knowledge of the subject. After seeing Nozick's follow-up theory, we can conclude that Nozick does not care about the method used. This can be seen in the fact that Nozick does not mention any limitations. In fact, Nozick states that we don't even need to know which method is used. This makes sense because it is an externalist theory and externalism states that......middle of article......the theory already allows for knowledge. This does not follow, because we are not justified in proceeding with the first step without a suitable method. The first step is necessary to justify three and four, you are not justified to hold three or four because they both require us to have a justified first step. Thus, the steps do not allow for complete justification. By adding this premise, Nozick's theory must become an internalist theory. Internalism holds that our methods are known to us. This way we can be sure that we are justified in our knowledge since we know the methods used. This way we can ensure that we are justified when using the theory, because we need to know what our method is and, as such, know whether it is reliable or not. So by adding to this internalist premise Nozick's tracking theory will always allow us to have a justification and therefore a knowledge.