Vogt, Katja
Senior Fellow:
Research Project: Scepticism and the JTB Account of Knowledge
The so-called JTB account of knowledge states that knowledge is a kind of belief, namely, belief that is true and justified. In a famous paper, Edmund Gettier (1963) observes that the JTB account is taken more or less for granted across different positions in epistemology. Arguably, this applies to positions throughout many centuries. In this project, Katja Vogt aims to show that the JTB account came to be established in epistemological theories that take knowledge of God as their primary concern, and that it owes much of its intuitiveness to the tradition of seeking to know God. In this tradition, scepticism takes the form of what Vogt calls Belief Scepticism: scepticism introduced as a method for distancing oneself from beliefs, and ultimately validating beliefs that are antecedently held. Here, the JTB account is a natural fit. In making this argument, Vogt is continuing her ongoing research on scepticism, including work on the differences between ancient and later scepticism, as well as a more recent project (co-authored with Jens Haas) on the nature of ignorance.
Katja Maria Vogt is professor of philosophy at Columbia University, New York.