Skip to content
Carmelics
TopicsThinkersChangesContributorsLoading account…

    Carmelics

    A reasoning platform. Break down any belief into clear reasons, explore both sides, and weigh the evidence honestly.

    Navigate

    • Topics
    • Search
    • Recent Changes
    • Contribute
    • How It Works
    • Glossary
    • Thinkers
    • Contributors
    • About
    • Statistics
    • Terms
    • Privacy

    Database

    Statements
    —
    Perspectives
    —
    Topics
    —

    Press ? for keyboard shortcuts

    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    Home/Original/inverse
    See Original
    Inverse View

    It is not the case that The reliability of a testimonial source alone is not sufficient to make testimony a source of knowledge.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Reliabilist epistemology (Goldman 1979) holds that a belief constitutes knowledge when produced by a reliable cognitive process, regardless of the agent's access to that reliability.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.The hearer's lack of introspective access to a source's reliability is epistemically irrelevant if the belief-forming process reliably tracks truth.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.Requiring access to reliability smuggles an internalist constraint into what is fundamentally an externalist account, conflating two distinct epistemic frameworks.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Reductionists like Hume demand that testimony earn its epistemic credentials through inductive confirmation, but anti-reductionists (Coady 1992) argue testimony is a basic, non-inferential source of knowledge on par with perception.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.If perception yields knowledge through reliable causal connection to the world without requiring the perceiver's access to perceptual reliability, testimony should be governed by the same standard.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.Demanding more from testimony than from perception imposes an asymmetric and unmotivated burden that undermines testimony's status as a foundational epistemic source.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.A hearer can be in a situation where a testimonial source is reliable but the hearer has no access to that reliability.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.In such a situation, it is plausible that the testimony does not yield knowledge.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.If reliability alone were sufficient, testimony would yield knowledge in that situation.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Next step

    Based on where you are in your exploration

    Strongest counterpoint
    Explore the most compelling reason on the other side.