The Origin of Knowledge - How We Know What We Know

The most surprising fact about our sources of knowledge

🔍 Key insights

• Testimonial Knowledge Dominates – Most of what we know comes from others, not firsthand experience or reasoning.

• Different Ways, Different Limits – Experience, logic, and intuition all shape knowledge, but each has flaws.

• Awareness is Power – Understanding how we acquire knowledge helps us question and refine our beliefs.

📚 Go deeper

🎥 Related videos:

• Wireless Philosophy, Argument from Illusion – Illusions distort perception, suggesting we never see reality directly.

• Wireless Philosophy, Argument from Hallucination – Hallucinations imply all perception might be indirect, separating us from the physical world.

📖 Further reading:

• Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sec. 10 (“Of Miracles”) – Challenges the reliability of testimonial knowledge and belief in extraordinary claims.

• Russell, The Problems of Philosophy, Ch. 6 (“On Induction”) – Shows why past experience doesn’t guarantee future truth through his famous chicken analogy.

• Goldman, Knowledge in a Social World, Ch. 5 (“The Epistemology of Testimony”) – Explores when and why we should trust knowledge from others.

🎧 Podcast to listen to:

• “Making Sense with Sam Harris – Episode #261: Belief & Identity” – Sam Harris and Jonas Kaplan discuss the neuroscience of belief change and how our identities are tied to our beliefs.

💡 Think for Yourself

• If most of our knowledge comes from others, how can we distinguish truth from misinformation?

• When should we trust intuition over reason—and when does it lead us astray?

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Cheers,
Kevin