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Knowledge Production and Intellectual Legitimacy | Samo Burja

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This is the fourth essay in my series on intellectual legitimacy. Read the first essay here. Read the previous essay here. We mostly evaluate knowledge by checking whether society at large perceives it as respectable and reasonable – we call this its intellectual legitimacy. This reliance is a consequence of our deep epistemic dependence on society. Legitimacy unfortunately is imperfectly coupled—and these days, quite weakly coupled—with the truth of a theory or its intellectual merit as a hypothesis. We outsource most of this verification work to various institutions and respected individuals on the basis of their intellectual authority. However, we also always do some evaluation ourselves, as well. Depending on our competence or thoroughness, this gives truth an advantage. The advantage isn’t sufficient to imply that accurate or more advanced knowledge wins out in the long run. Especially in periods of intellectual decline, the work most likely to be transmitted and evaluated as legi

Knowledge Production and Intellectual Legitimacy by Samo Burja | Jan 12, 2021 Knowledge Production and Intellectual Legitimacy by Samo Burja | January 12, 2021 This is the fourth essay in my series on intellectual legitimacy. Read the first essay here . Read the previous essay here . We mostly evaluate knowledge by checking whether society at large perceives it as respectable and reasonable – we call this its intellectual legitimacy . This reliance is a consequence of our deep epistemic dependence on society. Legitimacy unfortunately is imperfectly coupled—and these days, quite weakly coupled—

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