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    If non-testimonial faculties suffice to validate testimon... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→Testimonial knowledge is genuinely possible through words

    If non-testimonial faculties suffice to validate testimony, testimony itself contributes nothing irreducible to the production of knowledge.

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    1 reason for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.If we can verify testimony's truth through independent observation or reasoning, testimony adds no epistemic content we couldn't obtain otherwise.
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    • 2.Knowledge requires justification; if justification comes entirely from non-testimonial sources, testimony is merely a conduit, not a knowledge-producer.
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    • 3.Irreducibility means testimony must provide something unique; but everything testified can theoretically be known through direct experience or inference.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
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    • 1.Non-testimonial faculties cannot practically access most human knowledge (distant events, expert domains, history); testimony fills irreplaceable epistemic gaps.
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    • 2.Testimony's reliability depends on speaker credibility and social-epistemic practices—factors that cannot be reduced to individual non-testimonial faculties alone.
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    • 3.Knowledge from testimony involves trusting another's cognitive labor; this trust-based justification is epistemically distinct from replicating their investigation.
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    Key Terms

    knowledge(Distinguished from mere true belief, which may be the product of indoctrination and need not exercise deliberative capacities.)
    Justified true belief — true belief that has been arrived at through the exercise of deliberative capacities, including comparison of and deliberation among alternatives.

    Connections

    2 topics

    Truth & Knowledge1 linkedPhilosophy of Language1 linked

    Related

    If we can verify testimony's truth through independent observation or reasoning,...Irreducibility means testimony must provide something unique; but everything tes...Knowledge from testimony involves trusting another's cognitive labor; this trust...Knowledge requires justification; if justification comes entirely from non-testi...
    +3 moreShow less
    Non-testimonial faculties cannot practically access most human knowledge (distan...Testimonial knowledge is genuinely possible through words

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    2 (1 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit
    Testimony's reliability depends on speaker credibility and social-epistemic prac...