Knowledge

See epistemology.

Knowledge is a specific type of belief. For a belief to constitute knowledge, it must satisfy certain criteria:

1. Do you actually believe it?
2. Is you belief actually true?
3. Can it be justified?

Knowledge Claims

If you additionally make a knowledge claim (state that you know something), it requires you to be personally able to demonstrate your belief is true. This is not because it actually affects the truth value itself. Even if it’s actually true, you (as an individual) cannot claim to possess knowledge until you can demonstrate it.

Knowledge is therefore often summaried as: “Justified True Belief”.

But Gettier Problem!

Yes, Gettier pointed out that these criteria are not sufficient to distinguish knowledge from belief. They are however still necessary. Until epistemologists figure out what the fourth condition of knowledge is, this is what we’ve got.