Should you believe what you hear?

In this chapter we will discuss a further issue in epistemology (a topic we previously covered in Chapter 4), but in doing so we will also introduce an important debate in the history of modern philosophy. This epistemological issue is the extent to which we should form our own beliefs based on the testimony of others. By testimony, philosophers typically mean more than just the sort of evidence one might give in a court of law or to a police investigation. They mean anything one hears or reads about from other people rather than witnessing or deducing it oneself. (So, for example, what you are reading right now counts as testimony from the authors of this chapter.)