The place of Testimony in the Fabric of Knowledge and Justification

Abstract

This paper’s central purpose is to offer an account of what testimony is and of how it yields knowledge and justification. According to the view presented here, testimony is a significant and common source of justification and knowledge, as well as an important concept in social epistemology, communication and the psychology of belief acquisition. Although in this perspective testimony is not treated as a basic source of knowledge or justification, it is considered as a source of basic belief since, it is argued, basic beliefs need not derive from a basic source. Thus, new beliefs can be generated on the basis of testimony, but new knowledge cannot be produced except by building on prior knowledge. Yet, the position defended in this paper is that, even if testimony-based justification is ultimately dependent on other sources of justification, it is an essential source of both knowledge and justification.