Relations between information, belief and knowledge in Fred Dretske

• Grant number: 24/19946-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: February 01, 2025
• End date: December 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - Epistemology
• Principal Investigator: Marcos Antonio Alves
• Grantee: Sofia Fagundes Muniz
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia e Ciências (FFC). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Marília. Marília , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant(s): 25/01620-0 - 5th International Conference on Philosophy of Mind: Natural and Artificial Intelligence (5ICPH), AR.EXT

Abstract

Investigations into the nature of knowledge have been part of philosophy's agenda throughout its history. At the same time, Fred Dretske, seeking to avoid problems with the classical notion of knowledge, which comes from Plato, defines it as true belief causally sustained by information. In this context, the notion of information and its ontological status play an essential theorical role in the definition of knowledge. In this project, we propose a critical investigation into the relationship between information, belief and knowledge from Fred Dretske's perspective. As he bases his approach on the Mathematical Theory of Communication, we initially investigate the notion of information from this perspective. Next, we look at the notion of information in Dretske and the analyze his definition of knowledge.