“Indirect” Information: The Debate on Testimony in Social Epistemology and Its Role in the Game of “Giving and Asking for Reasons”

• Main Author: Raffaela Giovagnoli
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019-03-01
• Series: Information
• Subjects: testimony; justification; commitment; entitlement; speech act
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/2078-2489/10/3/101

We will sketch the debate on testimony in social epistemology by reference to the contemporary debate on reductionism/anti-reductionism, communitarian epistemology and inferentialism. Testimony is a fundamental source of knowledge we share and it is worthy to be considered in the ambit of a dialogical perspective, which requires a description of a formal structure, which entails deontic statuses and deontic attitudes. In particular, we will argue for a social reformulation of the “space of reasons”, which establishes a fruitful relationship with the epistemological view of Wilfrid Sellars.