Final answer:
Reliabilism is an epistemological theory that focuses on the reliability of processes that produce true beliefs. It addresses the Gettier problem by arguing that knowledge requires not only justification and truth but also a reliable process. Reliabilism offers an alternative perspective to Plato's traditional account of knowledge.
Step-by-step explanation:
Reliabilism, an epistemological theory that focuses on the reliability of processes that produce true beliefs, is often used to address the Gettier problem. Reliabilists argue that knowledge requires not only justification and truth but also a reliable process for arriving at the belief. This means that even if a belief is justified and true, if the process by which it was formed is unreliable, it cannot be considered knowledge.
For example, in one of Gettier's counterexamples, a person has a justified true belief that a friend will get the job because they saw their friend's name on the list of successful applicants. However, unbeknownst to them, there was a typo on the list, and their friend did not actually get the job. Reliabilism would argue that in this case, the process of forming the belief (relying on the list) was unreliable, and therefore the belief does not count as knowledge.
Overall, reliabilism offers an alternative perspective to Plato's traditional account of knowledge and attempts to address the Gettier problem by considering the reliability of the process through which beliefs are formed.