Gettier's Case Gettier believes that one can have justified belief but it still be false. There can be factors pointing to an obvious conclusion that a normal person would make, but at the same time, all those factors or statements may not add up to a true belief. If that same person then told someone that belief, are they lying? This the kind of thinking Gettier is going for.
Let’s set up a scenario in which this could happen. Say this week’s weather forecast calls for rain every day of this week. Today is a Tuesday and it has rained all day yesterday and all day today. The weather report has been right so far. On top of that, we live in a rainy climate so this is not unusual. This brings you to the conclusion that it will rain tomorrow…show more content… A man has recently become a heavy drug addict. When he uses these drugs he doesn’t remember anything that happened while on them. One night he uses these drugs and during his high he vandalises a store. He breaks the glass, goes in and trashes the place. He wakes up in the morning with no recollection of the event and believes he must have just fallen asleep at home. He goes on with his daily life. Later that week he is approached by the police because he resembles someone who vandalised a store earlier that week. He says he did no such thing and that he will take a polygraph test to prove it. He goes into this test believing fully that he was asleep at his house that night. The person conducting the test asks him “did you vandalise this store?” to which he replies “no”. The polygraph says he is telling the truth and he is free to go as they look for other suspects who resemble the man who did the crime. Did he lie?
It all boils down to what you believe to define a lie. If you believe that a lie is nothing more than an untrue statement, then yes he did. But some may argue that it is only a lie if you believe it to be. A polygraph test notices changes in your heart rate when you know you’re lying, but if you don’t know you’re lying, it’s as if you are telling the
