Citizens of democratic nations have a right to vote, but that right to participate in decisions about public policies comes with a responsibility: the responsibility to know enough to make good decisions when we vote. Whom do we trust? Who is telling us the truth? Which policies are most correct?

In Issue 51 of Philosophy Now, Peter Rickman writes about how contextual information can be crucial for us to make decisions in our lives:

Democracy is based on the conviction that we are all capable of judgment in two areas; of moral judgments as to what is right or wrong and of forming a view of our own most important aspirations. Knowledge of the facts on which we are supposed to judge is another crucial matter because complex and elusive factors can be at work. [...]

History as the record of what happens in that all encompassing medium, time, is an example. It is not just a record of what people, long dead, once did. It provides the proper context into which to acquire current information so that it can be used to make choices for the future. Thus history and geography are basic requirements for being orientated in the world, i.e. to make knowledgeable choices.

This isn’t just a matter of history, though, it’s also a matter of epistemology: the philosophical study of knowledge itself. Epistemology tells us about what we can know, how we can know it, why we can know it, and what we can do about our knowledge. Without some understanding of epistemology, the knowledge that it supposed to provide context to our decisions itself has no context for evaluation or action.

Philosophy generally and epistemology in particular cannot provide answers to thorny dilemmas, like those involving terrorism or abortion, but they can help us understand what sorts of relevant knowledge we can have and provide context both for that knowledge and for the decisions we need to make.

For these reasons, epistemology is not the esoteric subject that it might appear to be and which so many generally assume. It’s a subject that is intensely relevant to everyone, even if they don’t realize it consciously, and which everyone should know a bit more about.

Read More:

• Philosophy 101
• Critical Thinking