#epistemology #rationality # [[Epistemic status]] #shower-thought # Relying on authority is time-saving >But learning about the world indirectly through language is not 100 percent reliable. For example, it is possible that Havana is not a real place. It is possible that the people who told me about Havana are lying and coordinating their misinformation to fool me. The false history book shows how false beliefs can spread through language even if no one is intentionally spreading misinformation. >~ [[Jeff Hawkins]] Sometimes you cannot afford to invest time in seeking evidence, and you prefer to [[Relying on authority is time-saving|rely on authority]]. It's a very dangerous matter to rely on authority, but if you consider the authority of high enough [[Epistemic status]], you might take the risk? Also, if I want to know if the earth is spherical or flat, I cannot go to the moon until I'm an astronaut, so I must rely on science using for example Foucault's pendulum[^1] An example, you know Bob who is an expert in X, so you trust what Bob says about X and believe it because you can't afford to read all the [[Scientific|scientific]] papers about X. Now, the issue is that most people have low threshold to accept people into their trust circles, resulting in ir[[Rationality|rationality]]. # External links [^1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foucault_pendulum Similar topics Wikipedia URLs: - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistemology - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationality - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method