Speaking at an international conference on “Internationality, Normativity and Objectivity” being organized by the Department of Philosophy, University of Hyderabad from January 8th to 10th, Dr. Laxminaranyan Lenka presented a paper on “DeGettiering Knowledge: An Understanding of Prof. Amitabha Dasgupta’s Believer”.
In his paper, Dr. Lenka discussed Austin’s concept of “I Know”. He observed that Prof. Dasgupta considered a “Believer” an epistemic subject. ADG, as Dr. Lenka chose to call him, does not claim of defining knowledge in a way that knowledge cannot be gettiered. According to Dr, ADG argues in favour of the objectivity of knowledge.
Divided into four sections, the paper discussed about the exposition of Gettier’s problem. During the course of presentation, Dr. Lenka brought out Gettier cases to elucidate his arguments. He highlighted the fact that none of the cases was based on semantic muddles.
According to Dr Lenka, ADG upholds the idea that knowledge presupposes certainty. His concept of certainty could be explained on linguistic and epistemological grounds, said Dr. Lenka. Lasting over an hour, the paper also talked about Platinga’s notion of “warrant”.
Dr. Lenka is an Associate Professor at the North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong. He is an alumnus of University of Hyderabad. He has written a book entitled “Quine’s Philospohy”, in addition to some papers and book review in journals at national and international level.
-Saumya Painuli, MA Communication