Epistemology
Knowing from Testimony
By , Department of Philosophy, Northern Illinois University (June 2006)
Section: Epistemology
Subjects: Philosophy, Epistemology.
Key Topics: knowledge, externalism, evidence.
Abstract
Testimony is a vital and ubiquitous source of knowledge. Were we to refrain from accepting the testimony of others, our lives would be impoverished in startling and debilitating ways. Despite the vital role that testimony occupies in our epistemic lives, traditional epistemological theories have focused primarily on other sources, such as sense perception, memory, and reason, with relatively little attention devoted specifically to testimony. In recent years, however, the epistemic significance of testimony has been more fully appreciated. I shall here focus on two questions that have received the most attention in recent work in the epistemology of testimony. First, is testimonial knowledge acquired only by being transmitted from speaker to hearer? Second, must a hearer have positive reasons to justifiedly accept a speaker’s testimony?
DOI: 10.1111/j.1747-9991.2006.00035.x
This article abstract has been viewed 5117 times.
Top 5 related articles
-
External World Skepticism
By , Saint Louis University
(Vol. 2, June 2007)
Philosophy Compass -
A Priori Knowledge: Debates and Developments
By , University of Nottingham
(Vol. 3, March 2008)
Philosophy Compass -
Evidence: Fundamental Concepts and the Phenomenal Conception
By , Princeton University
(Vol. 3, July 2008)
Philosophy Compass -
Virtue Epistemology
By , California State University, Fullerton
(Vol. 3, May 2008)
Philosophy Compass -
New Approaches to Byzantine History
By , University College, Oxford
(Vol. 1, November 2005)
History Compass
Top 5 Related Blackwell Reference Chapters
What is Knowledge?
Knowledge is a highly valued state in which a person is in cognitive contact with reality. It is, therefore, ...
By Linda Zagzebski
Contextualism: An Explanation and Defense
In epistemology, “contextualism” denotes a wide variety of more-or-less closely related positions according ...
By Keith DeRose
Perceptual Knowledge
This essay deals with epistemological issues concerning perception. These can be briefly indicated by ...
By William Alston
Culture in Global Knowledge Societies: Knowledge Cultures and Epistemic Cultures
The rise of a cultural conception of knowledge is rooted in contemporary existence, in the current transition ...
By Karin Knorr Cetina
Evidence and Confirmation
To say that a body of information is evidence in favor of a hypothesis is to say that the hypothesis ...
By COLIN HOWSON