Abstract

The broad discussion on false belief in the Theaetetus contributes strongly to the dialogue's inquiry on knowledge at all. It aims to elucidate the consequences of the fact that beliefs have a structure which can be expressed by „… is …” first observed in the final critique of the attempt to equate knowledge with perception. In the discussion on false belief, this structure proves to be part of a sufficient explanation of false belief, and to be a necessary feature of knowledge. The latter result gives rise to a new task in defining knowledge: to explain how a structured belief (that has just shown to be prone to error) can be „unerring”.