Abstract

A longstanding philosophical concern has been to question whether a piece of information can be treated as knowledge. This concern generated the traditional epistemological reflections on: ‘what is knowledge’ or ‘what can be qualified as knowledge’? Knowledge is often considered as a corpus of ‘beliefs’ that an individual has about the world. The concern for mainstream epistemology was the problem of identifying the criterion for justified belief and dealing with the sceptical challenge of the possibility of knowledge. The epistemic engagement, and negotiation with the world, involving other epistemic agents as well, constitute various episodic slices present within the larger enterprise of relating the world and the mind (the subject). We pursue acquiring and sharing information about the world. Thus, our interaction with the world provides a continuous flow of information between ourselves and the world (which includes other epistemic agents as well). Such information, with proper evidential support and justification, often becomes knowledge, which then gradually forms our corpus of beliefs. This article explores the role of evidentiality in testimonies, and as ‘markers of evidence’ that may be expressed in a statement by the speaker may often suggest conditions of acceptance by the hearer. I also address the issue of epistemic decision-making in social contexts in the form of two questions: (i) how do epistemic agents form beliefs about something (in the world) given evidential inputs from other people; and (ii) how do epistemic agents respond and alter their doxastic attitude in light of testimony (evidence from others)?