Reality-Making: The Art of Distinguishing Truth from Falsehood
Understanding the constitution of knowledge (and the new attacks on it)
Why do you believe what you believe?
Over the last months, I’ve become fascinated by (a) how each of us comes to accept something as true and (b) how societies come to some kind of public understanding about truth. Playing around at the intersection of these questions has been immensely insightful for me. Today, I want to transmit some of that enthusiasm to you.
It will be a long ride, but your understanding of knowledge and truth will never be the same.
This essay has two parts. In part one, we’ll look at how we come to know we know what we know. I’ll introduce terms such as ‘indirect knowledge’, ‘a public understanding of truth’ and ‘the constitution of knowledge’. The second half focuses on a worry that our beautiful system of knowledge is breaking down. Ideas such as ‘post-truth’, ‘fake news’, and ‘filter bubbles’ will be central to that discussion.
No knowledge without others
How have you come to know what you (think you) know?
Assessing an idea’s legitimacy is hard work. If the only means of assessment is to verify the truth of it yourself…
