The other day I was explaining to a young person what the word “epistemology” means. To keep things simple, I said it is how you know what you know, or in terms of political discussion, how you know you are right. They asked for an example. I said that the use of logic and reason beginning from a set of givens or first principles is one approach to epsitemology. They said they assumed everyone used that approach. I told them that I thought not — that, by my observation, the most common epistemology through history has been: “I was told it by a high status person in my family or tribe.” Based on sampling of social media, I still think this is still the case today.
Warren Meyer, “History’s Most Common Epistemology”, Coyote Blog, 2017-05-09.
May 28, 2019
QotD: Epistemology
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