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

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 s...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Levy, N
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis 2023
_version_ 1797111540191592448
author Levy, N
author_facet Levy, N
author_sort Levy, N
collection OXFORD
description 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.
first_indexed 2024-03-07T08:10:15Z
format Journal article
id oxford-uuid:dcdfbd49-980d-4435-b4fc-446d5088b267
institution University of Oxford
language English
last_indexed 2024-03-07T08:10:15Z
publishDate 2023
publisher Taylor & Francis
record_format dspace
spelling oxford-uuid:dcdfbd49-980d-4435-b4fc-446d5088b2672023-11-22T11:22:31ZIt’s our epistemic environment, not our attitude toward truth, that mattersJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:dcdfbd49-980d-4435-b4fc-446d5088b267EnglishSymplectic ElementsTaylor & Francis2023Levy, NThe 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.
spellingShingle Levy, N
It’s our epistemic environment, not our attitude toward truth, that matters
title It’s our epistemic environment, not our attitude toward truth, that matters
title_full It’s our epistemic environment, not our attitude toward truth, that matters
title_fullStr It’s our epistemic environment, not our attitude toward truth, that matters
title_full_unstemmed It’s our epistemic environment, not our attitude toward truth, that matters
title_short It’s our epistemic environment, not our attitude toward truth, that matters
title_sort it s our epistemic environment not our attitude toward truth that matters
work_keys_str_mv AT levyn itsourepistemicenvironmentnotourattitudetowardtruththatmatters