Epistemology

[Lucifer Morningstar]

I was also asking about sources of knowledge in more general terms too. For example; if you were on a jury then you might have to make decisions based on eye witness accounts.

Here in the UK (I assume it is the same in the US) a jury is not allowed to return a verdict of guilty if there is any doubt in their minds they may be wrong. The prosecution HAS to prove the case beyond all reasonable doubt. This acts as a protection against unreliable evidence.

You might have to rely on expert witnesses for things like explanations of a persons health or wha the surgical risks are in an operation. If you were diagnosed with cancer then you'd literally have to place your lives in the hands of onclologists who might have to fill your bodies with poison (i.e. chemo) to kill the cancer etc. Sometimes we must base decisions on what certain authorities say. Thus some of our knowledge will come from experts. Brick-Top just described what a virtual particle is. I assume that he learned that somewhere. Typically we learn from authoritative sources like text books, science teachers etc. You know that the sun is 93 million miles from the Sun because scientists have worked hard to figure this out. We trust that they did their job right and we trust that the system works, i.e. one scientist might lie or make a mistake but we can't imagine that they all do.

Scientific research takes place within a framework of 'rules' usually referred to as the scientific method.

http://phyun5.ucr.edu/~wudka/Physics7/No...node5.html

"A theory is accepted not based on the prestige or convincing powers of the proponent, but on the results obtained through observations and/or experiments which anyone can reproduce: the results obtained using the scientific method are repeatable. In fact, most experiments and observations are repeated many times (certain experiments are not repeated independently but are repeated as parts of other experiments). If the original claims are not verified the origin of such discrepancies is hunted down and exhaustively studied."

http://biology.clc.uc.edu/Courses/bio104/sci_meth.htm

"Research is cumulative and progressive. Scientists build on the work of previous researchers, and one important part of any good research is to first do a literature review to find out what previous research has already been done in the field. Science is a process — new things are being discovered and old, long-held theories are modified or replaced with better ones as more data/knowledge is accumulated. For example, the idea that the sun is at the center of our solar system replaced the idea that the earth was at the center of the universe, and the idea that ulcers are caused by stress has been replaced by the idea that ulcers are caused by bacterial infection. Scientists are human, too, and so these major changes are often controversial and accompanied by violent debate!"

If you're married then consider whether you would have got married if you believed that your wife would cheat on you. Its impossible to know that before you say I do so, based on our knowledge and experience with this person, we trust them. That means that we assume they won't do something when we can't really know for sure that they won't. That's an example of faith too.

How many people carry out an analysis on the probable future behaviour of their intended partner? People get together because they are attracted to each other at that moment in time or because they have to.

If a man gets up to go to work then he has to assume that won't die before he gets there. That's usually true, but not always.

Is there any evidence we KNOWINGLY make an assumption about this on a daily basis? I certainly do not wonder if I am going die before I get to work.

Sometimes we have to make assumptions in life because it would be too difficult to live otherwise.

IMHO opinion it is is always better to make informed decisions (within your own limitations) whenever possible.