It's our epistemic environment, not our attitude toward truth, that matters

Neil Levy

doi:10.1080/08913811.2022.2149108

It's our epistemic environment, not our attitude toward truth, that matters

Neil Levy^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

13 Citations (Scopus)

102 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The widespread conviction that we are living in a post-truth era rests on two claims: that a large number of people believe things that are clearly false, and that their believing these things reflects a lack of respect for truth. In reality, however, fewer people believe clearly false things than surveys or social media suggest. In particular, relatively few people believe things that are widely held to be bizarre. Moreover, accepting false beliefs does not reflect a lack of respect for truth. Almost everyone’s beliefs are explained by rationally warranted trust in some sources rather than others. This allows us to explain why people have false beliefs.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	94-111
Number of pages	18
Journal	Critical Review
Volume	35
Issue number	1-2
Early online date	6 Mar 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/08913811.2022.2149108
Publication status	Published - 2023

Bibliographical note

Copyright the Author(s) 2023. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

Keywords

bizarre beliefs
climate scepticism
conspiracy theories
post-truth

Access to Document

10.1080/08913811.2022.2149108

Publisher version (open access)Final published version, 136 KBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "It's our epistemic environment, not our attitude toward truth, that matters",

abstract = "The widespread conviction that we are living in a post-truth era rests on two claims: that a large number of people believe things that are clearly false, and that their believing these things reflects a lack of respect for truth. In reality, however, fewer people believe clearly false things than surveys or social media suggest. In particular, relatively few people believe things that are widely held to be bizarre. Moreover, accepting false beliefs does not reflect a lack of respect for truth. Almost everyone{\textquoteright}s beliefs are explained by rationally warranted trust in some sources rather than others. This allows us to explain why people have false beliefs.",

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It's our epistemic environment, not our attitude toward truth, that matters

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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Changing philosophical perceptions of belief in a post-truth world

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It's our epistemic environment, not our attitude toward truth, that matters

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

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Changing philosophical perceptions of belief in a post-truth world

Cite this