Are we reading or Thinking

 I've just finished reading a short paper by Edmund Gettier. Its pretty much standard fare for any student of modern philosophy, and can be found by a trivial google search. His paper attacking the concept of Justified True Belief, was perhaps anticipated in part by Russel's example of Alice, and the Clock, but this is common in academia, as often a field is ripe for a new concept.

It did not cite Russell, though it did Cite A.J Ayer, whose work on the Problem of Knowledge had been published previously.

Both these papers are considered important in their field, and I think were considered to be so well known that they might not need citing, at that time. 

On a personal note, as in this is just my opinion, I think that as the universities have spread their wings to include more and more people, there has been a change in emphasis in academic literature away from thinking and original ideas, and towards citations and Authorities, in what is know as “Scholarship”.   This was the way of the schoolmen, and is similar to the Confucian approach to education.

These may not be the most fruitful of paths to follow for creativity and innovation.

Edmund Gettier Is justified True Belief Knowledge? Analysis. vol. 23 (1966).

A. J. Ayer. The Problem of Knowledge McMillan (London, 1956).