Why Truth is Not a Necessary Condition for Knowledge

One of the most commonly shared assumptions in epistemology is the doctrine that truth is a necessary condition for knowledge. While epistemologists disagree as to what exactly constitutes knowledge or how this concept is to be analyzed, virtually everyone agrees that in order for S to know that p, p must be true. This thesis can thus be regarded as one of the most fundamental orthodoxies with respect to theories of knowledge ranging from ancient to contemporary approaches. 1 I will argue that, contrary to this popular belief, truth is not a necessary condition for knowledge since there are cases in which it seems clear that S knows that p even though p is in fact false. Formulating these cases will reveal a general principle that can be used to generate counterexamples and provide several different cases to illustrate it.