Paths to knowledge

Week 1: reason · epistemology

Paths to knowledge

Distinguish the three classical paths to adopting an idea: authority, induction, and conjecture.

In this lesson

  1. Read the core idea (2 min).
  2. Walk through one worked example.
  3. Take the 4-question quiz; pass with 4/4 or better.

Hook

Stop and ask: how did the last new idea you accepted actually get into your head? You probably can't remember — and that is exactly the problem. Until you can name the path, you can't audit it.

This lesson sorts every belief you hold into one of three buckets, named by the route it took. Two of those buckets, on a Popperian reading, are bankrupt. The third is the one knowledge actually lives in.