Justified True Belief Isn't the Answer?

Recently in lecture we discussed truth and how one comes to know whether some fact is actually true or false. The world in which we live today is more full of information than anyone could have ever anticipated earlier in human history. Before the onset of TV, radio, and the internet, it would have taken months of time for a person to hear the amount of information available on a daily basis in the world currently. But now that people see so much more these days, how can everyone sort out what is true and what is not? Can we have a detailed inquiry in to each thing that we hear everyday in order to fact check. That would take far too much time and energy than would be worth it.

Who has time to fact check every news story?

For class we read Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" which brings up a very interesting point concerning truth. In the essay, Plato describes a situation in which a prisoner who has only seen shadows of objects for his whole life is suddenly thrust into the daylight of reality. After this prisoner recovers from the shock and misunderstanding that surrounds him, he goes back into the cave-prison to enlighten his fellows, but they reject his ideas a false, instead believing that the shadows are in fact reality. How can we know what is in fact true is society can be so flawed as seen in this circumstance?

Plato's cave is like a prison, keeping those inside from knowledge.

Just in case you need a reminder on the allegory:

The philosophy often attributed to Plato that solves the problem of what and what not to view as truth is the idea of justified true belief. This means, that if one believes some proposition to be true, and he or she has justification as to the truth of this belief, then the belief can count as knowledge. For example: if I believe to be true that my roommate is sitting next to me right now, and I look over and observe him, as he usually appears, sitting at his desk, then I have both a true belief and one that is justified through the experience of observation.

Or in a general case for justified true belief:

• X is true
• Y believes X is true
• Y has a justification for believing X

Although justified true belief, or JTB for shorthand, used to be a good criteria, how can we still use it when we are overloaded with information due to the media?
This is a problem that occurs in academics, in the daily life of any ordinary working or middle class person, in politics, and almost every other facet of our modern culture.

In addition, the philosopher Edmund Gettier found problems with the JTB solution to knowledge as well. His point is that sometimes our justification itself is false. For example: Amy is in the kitchen with her sister-in-law, Sarah, preparing a Thanksgiving supper. Their husbands are in the living room watching football. Amy asks Sarah if she could check to see if Tom, Amy's husband, is still in the living room. Sarah walks to the doorway and sees a man across the room who she assumes to be Tom. He looks like Tom, but Sarah does not have her glasses on. Sarah has JTB that Tom is in the room, however she was in fact seeing her own husband who looks very similar to Tom. Tom actually is in the room, but he's in the dark corner near the mantle. Therefore, it IS true that Tom is in the room, but can we really say that Sarah knew that?

What do you all think about this problem? Does anyone know of another philosopher who has addressed this issue?

Also, before I finish, how can we solve the problem of the truth of knowledge in modern society if JTB isn't necessarily feasible? I'm interested to hear what everyone thinks.

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