Dumming It Down

To make it simpler and more palatable, let's consider our first example, the office secretary. The issue is that Mrs. Knull knows that her secretary is in the office.

This is based on the following: Mrs. Knull looked into the office and saw a figure that looked exactly like her secretary. We may suppose that she would completely be justified in believing that her secretary was in the office. Let us further suppose that the figure sitting in the office was not her secretary, but his twin brother. However, let us continue to say that her secretary was hidden behind the desk waiting to pop out and surprise her.

Gettier brought forth this line of reasoning to conclude that Mrs. Knull indeed did not really know that her secretary was in the office. He suggested that the knower was indeed correct, but through coincidence.