All posts tagged: epistemology

The Three Main Approaches to Epistemology Explained

The Three Main Approaches to Epistemology Explained

Published by Sam Flores

Published: Apr 23, 2026written by Giulia Villa, BA Linguistics and Philosophy Summary Epistemology is the philosophical branch that questions how our beliefs become justified as true knowledge. Foundationalism structures knowledge on a base of self-justifying beliefs to prevent an endless chain of justification. Coherentism views knowledge as an interconnected web of belief, where justification arises from mutual consistency. Epistemic Relativism argues justification is not absolute but contingent on cultural and social contexts. No single theory is perfect; understanding knowledge requires engaging with the ongoing debate between these views. Show more   We are more or less certain that we know things that we have learned in school, from our parents, siblings, or friends. We also gain knowledge from overhearing conversations, watching movies, reading books, and many other sources. Is there a source that can be considered the most reliable one? Moreover, how can we cope with the fact that we hold different, and often contradicting, beliefs about the same things as other people? Whose beliefs are justified and why? Philosophers working in the epistemology cluster in three positions, Foundationalism, Coherentism, and Relativism, depending on their …

Why Hitchens’ Razor is Bad Epistemology

Why Hitchens’ Razor is Bad Epistemology

Published by Sam Flores

Few modern slogans in popular atheism have the enduring appeal of Hitchens’ Razor: What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence. It is elegant and sharp. And it is an effective epistemic heuristic—a rough and dirty rule that gets things right often enough. So, at first glance, the razor looks like an epistemic principle for distinguishing rational belief from mere assertion. Unfortunately, despite its pith, if taken as an epistemic norm, it is garbage. This article is meant as a warning against taking Hitchens’ Razor too seriously, even while acknowledging that there are indeed cases where the lack of evidence is sufficient for rejecting something. Taken as a hard and fast epistemic rule, it fails for two reasons. I. Not All Rational Beliefs Require Evidence The first mistake is the assumption that every rational belief must be supported by evidence. That view is intuitively appealing—especially to empiricists—but it cannot be sustained without circularity. Start with a simple case: the belief, “I have a belief.” That belief is rational, and indeed undeniable, …

5 Key Works in Epistemology That Answer How We Know What We Know

5 Key Works in Epistemology That Answer How We Know What We Know

Published by Sam Flores

  What does it mean to know something? It’s a question that feels simple until you really think about it. Is knowledge just having the right facts, relying on things others told you, or believing with your own eyes and common sense? Epistemology is pushing us to rethink how we understand truth, the nature of belief, and the limits of human understanding. Sometimes the result can be anticlimactic, when skepticism, the view through which philosophers express their doubt that we know anything at all, enters the scene. In this article, we’ll explore five books that have defined the field: two historical classics that laid the groundwork and three contemporary works that challenge and expand our thinking.   Work & Author Era / Publication Core Epistemological Contribution Theaetetus(Plato) c. 369 BC Explores knowledge as perception, true belief, or “true belief with an account,” ultimately ending in a state of puzzlement (aporia). Meditations on First Philosophy(René Descartes) 1641 Establishes foundationalism through a “method of doubt,” identifying the Cogito (“I think, therefore I am”) as the only indubitable …

Science Denial: From Post-Truth to Post-Trust

Science Denial: From Post-Truth to Post-Trust

Published by Jenni Sidey

Philosophers Stephen Nadler and Lawrence Shapiro open their book When Bad Thinking Happens to Good People with a dire warning. “Something is seriously wrong,” they write. “An alarming number of citizens, in America and around the world, are embracing crazy, even dangerous ideas.” These ideas include the beliefs that vaccines cause autism, that the scientific consensus on climate change is a hoax, and that 5G cellular networks contributed to the spread of COVID-19. According to Nadler and Shapiro, the problem with those who hold such beliefs is not that they are unintelligent or uneducated. Rather, it is that they “think badly”—they should be “perfectly aware that they are forming and holding beliefs irrationally and irresponsibly, and even doing so willfully.” Nadler and Shapiro are not alone in thinking that liberal democracies are experiencing an epidemic of willful ignorance. In the last decade, many observers have lamented the advent of a “post-truth” era, an era in which a growing number of citizens have little or no interest in the truth and would rather believe what is …

Rot, Rinse, Repeat | Blog of the APA

Rot, Rinse, Repeat | Blog of the APA

Published by Jenni Sidey

Photo by SPACEDEZERT on Unsplash Brain Rot, Feedback Loops, and the Shared Costs of Social Media Optimization In last month’s post, I introduced the idea of linguistic feedback loops in large language models (LLMs) through small but telling examples—words like delve that appear with surprising frequency in AI-generated text. These indicators of generative AI use emerge because they are statistically overrepresented in training data, and LLMs tend to reproduce what they encounter most often. A feedback loop forms when humans, through repeated exposure, begin to adopt these same patterns and use them more frequently in online content. That content then feeds back into future training sets, reinforcing the cycle. The “delve” phenomenon reflects a feedback loop that begins inside model training and spills outward into human use. This month, I want to look at a different (and potentially more consequential) dynamic: one that does not originate in models at all, but takes shape within human–social media platform ecosystems before being folded back into future training, with far more troubling implications. That dynamic has already been named. The …