To progress as human beings we have to trust each other and work together. This is highlighted in the epistemology of testimony. For instance, we are not experts in many fields. Therefore, we must accept the testimonial transmission of knowledge from others (with certain conditions). University lecturer in philosophy Dr. Elizabeth Fricker, argues that it is rational to accept the testimony of an authority. This acceptance ...is entailed by her background knowledge of her own cognitive and physical nature and limitations, together with her appreciation of how other people are both like and in other respects unlike herself, hence on some occasions better epistemically placed regarding some matter than she is herself. I may rationally regret that I cannot fly, or go for a week without sleep without any loss of performance, or find out for myself everything which I would like to know. But given my cognitive and physical limitations as parametric, there is no room for rational regret about my extended but canny trust in the word of others, and enormous epistemic and consequent other riches to be gained from it.[1] The moral of this point is: we cant progress without each other. So maintain harmony and tranquillity amongst each other. [1] Elizabeth Fricker. Testimony and Epistemic Autonomy in The Epistemology of Testimony. Edited by Jennifer Lackey and Ernest Sosa. Clarendon Press: Oxford. 2006, p. 244.
Posted on: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 18:32:00 +0000
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