The Nature of Testimony

Abstract

AbstractChapter 2 begins with a discussion of the nature of testimony as a speech act and an epistemic source. This discussion draws on foundational epistemological research such as the internalist/externalist debate and the reductionist/anti-reductionist debate. Here Gerken provides an epistemically externalist emphasis of the epistemic significance of the social environment. Chapter 2 also considers the senses in which testimony may and may not be said to transfer epistemic warrant from testifier to recipient. Specifically, Gerken criticizes various transmission principles and argues for a negative principle, Non-Inheritance of Scientific Justification, according to which the kind or degree of scientific justification that the testifier possesses is typically not transmitted to the recipient—even when the testimonial exchange is epistemically successful. Finally, Chapter 2 also includes a discussion of norms (objective benchmarks of assessment) and guidelines (concrete directives that scientific testifiers may follow).