Degenerate Epistemology

摘要

Science, especially physics, has taught us to be very cautious about our naive certainties ("that's the way it is!"), everyday intuitions ("it must be that way!"), and common-sensical rejections ("that's impossible!"). While reading this issue of Philosophy & Technology, just recall that we are all travelling at about 100,000 km/h around the sun. Indeed, we are getting so used to contemporary science supporting extraordinary claims that abrasively clash with what we would consider plausible, that we might overreact, and be inclined to believe almost anything. If tomorrow some credible source tells us that unicorns have been biologically engineered in some lab, how many of us would be utterly incredulous? So when scientists come up with some incredible results, what should we believe? The problem is exacerbated by the fact that these days, experiments churn gazillions of data.