Mr. Moderate

Epistemology is “the study or a theory of the nature and grounds of knowledge especially with reference to its limits and validity.” (Websters Dictionary) That is a fancy way of saying that it is the study of how we know things are true or false, and what degree of certainty we can assign to any particular tidbit of alleged knowledge.

Most people just absorb their principles of “truth discerning” along with language and social skills as they are growing up. Thus, for most people, their principles for ascertaining truth and untruth are strongly rooted in their cultural environment. Epistemology is a branch of philosophy which attempts to take those haphazardly-gathered principles of “truth discerning” and systematically study them under the microscope of logic and reasoning. Each individual philosopher may well then feel free to propose their own particular epistemological theory, setting forth exactly which principles of logic and reason ought to be employed in order to have the best grasp of what is true, what is untrue, and what degree of certainty we can assign to each alleged truth or untruth.

Matters of fact should always be judged with respect to the degree of certainty we have about their truth or falsity. Matters of opinion may be similarly judged to the extent they contain “fact-like” assertions (meaning opinions that can be objectively verified for at least the sake of consistency; such as if I claim to like the color “blue” but a check of my wardrobe reveals no blue clothes and a large quantity of browns and yellows). Even opinions which represent entirely subjective points of view (such as a statement that some particular person is “ugly”) can at least be judged for consistency with the statements of other people and statements of the same person at other times.

Most people at least unconsciously rate the factual and opinion statements of other people in order to assess the reliability of present and future statements (facts or opinions) made by that same person. If you find that person generally presents reliable statements of fact and opinion, you will assess that person’s credibility as a witness much higher than you would a person who has a history of being a pathological liar.

The philosophical discipline of epistemology studies all of the methods and procedures used by humans at any time in the past or present to discern the truth and/or credibility of statements of fact or opinion. Serious philosophers will take the process to its logical conclusion and propose a theory of epistemology which sets forth the rules to be used with as much precision as possible when it is necessary to assess statements for truth and credibility. Since such statements can be extremely important (such as in a case in a court of law), but frankly, most of us have no real idea just how to go about properly making such a judgment about some person and/or the statements they have made.

It is the intent of blog articles I will write under this topic category to explore various principles of judgment using epistemological ground rules.