I simply just do not understand this concept, everything from the idea of close possible worlds to the counterfactual conditions.
So, 1. P is true. 2. You believe that P
(following the famous "fake barn county" example, P is true because Henry is looking at a real barn, he is looking at the one and only real barn in the area and Henry believes he is looking at a real barn) - I understand this, both conditions are satisfied. He has a true belief.
Then, Nozick presents 2 conditionals that I simply just do not unterstand, here I will try to make sense of them but please, correct my mistake.
3. in the situation you are in, or in a similar situation if P is not true, then you would not believe that P.
Let me introduce E. Sosa's Fake Barn example :
- The Fake Barn Case The fake barn case runs as follows. You are driving through some rural area, perhaps some part of Wisconsin. The locals, bored with ordinary farm life, have decided to play a trick on visitors, and so have tried to replace all the barns in the area with fake barns. They inadvertently leave one real barn in place. As you are driving through the countryside, you take notice of various objects: houses, cars, horses, cows, pigs, fields of corn and other crops, etc. You only notice one barn-like object, and it happens to be the only real barn in the locale. You believe it is a barn, and your belief is an ordinary perceptual one, and one that is true. But because of the activity of the locals, you do not know that it is a barn. (Jonathan L. Kvanvig, 'Sosa's Virtue Epistemology', Crítica: Revista Hispanoamericana de Filosofía, Vol. 42, No. 125, p.48.)
So, in fake barn county, if Henry was looking at a fake barn he would not believe he is looking at a fake barn. ??
4. in the situation you are in, or a similar situation if P were true, then you would believe that P.
So, in fake barn county if Henry was looking at a real barn, then he would believe he was looking at a real barn. ??
I just do not understand the 2 conditionals, I do not understand how they produce knowledge of anything and I simply just cannot get my head around the idea of what they are trying to present when talking about different situations.
Please, please help. Thankyou.