ABSTRACT

The correspondence theory of truth states that a proposition is true if, and only if, what the proposition states is the case. My statement ‘It is snowing on the North Pole right now’ is true if, and only if, it is actually snowing on the North Pole right now. But my statement may be a guess and nevertheless true. I may be right; I may make true statements just by chance. Only if my statement is caused by the snowing on the North Pole may we say that I have knowledge. In the famous Gettier examples, this goes much further. The statement ‘It is snowing on the North Pole right now’ must not only be caused, but it must be caused, in the right or the relevant way, by the snowing on the North Pole.1