Epistemology and Infectious Misinformation
"Oh say, what is truth? 'Tis the fairest gem... 'Tis the brightest prize to which mortals and Gods can aspire." - LDS Hymn #272 - " Oh Say, What is Truth" How many of our current beliefs might be wrong? If we are wrong, would we truly want to know? Are there certain personal beliefs that we consider beyond questioning? Do the benefits of our beliefs outweigh the need to know whether they are true? If our ultimate goal is to believe the most number of correct things as possible, how much time are we actually putting into evaluating information that may disprove our beliefs? These are some of the questions explored by the field of epistemology. Simply put, epistemology is the study of "what distinguishes justified belief from opinion." It's less concerned with what is objectively true ( ontology ) and more concerned with the methodologies used to arrive at our beliefs. We tend to spend a lot of time justifying and confirming our beliefs...