Gettier

Edmund Gettier was an American philosopher perhaps best known for formulating the Gettier problem of knowledge, according to which the traditional formulation that a "justified true belief" that constitutes knowledge may be based on false beliefs, making the knowledge not real.

In the context of quizbowl, Gettiering a question refers to getting the question right through an incorrect thought process that observers may not necessarily consider 'knowledge.' An example of Gettiering a question may be buzzing on a question on birds on a clue on the Sibley-Ahlquist Taxonomy based on the knowledge that there is a famous Sibley bird guide. While this would be a good buzz, the Sibley of the taxonomy (Charles Sibley) is not the same as the Sibley of the bird guide (David Allen Sibley). In the case of this question, the player has a justified true belief about the name Sibley and its association with birds, however they have knowledge of the incorrect Sibley. Thus, despite getting the question right and getting the points, they have been rewarded for false knowledge.

Gettiering is not to be confused with fraud, which relies on binary word association and poor clue selection that narrows down the answer space. Gettiering specifically is getting a question right through an incorrect thought process.

External Links

• Original forums post on Gettier Problems in Quizbowl made by Shan Kothari