Territory · Developing idea · last reconsidered August 17, 2026
Knowing
How we find out what is true, and how we notice when we are wrong.
What it takes to actually know something rather than to feel sure of it: what counts as evidence, what checking really involves, and what gets lost when a claim is swapped for a picture of that claim.
Entry points
Central questions
Key concepts
Central tensions
- Confidence and grounds feel identical from the inside; only an external check separates them. What do I actually know?
- Demanding grounds for everything is paralysis, and accepting authority for everything is credulity. The line between them is not given in advance. What do I actually know?
- The people best placed to name what would refute a belief are the ones least motivated to. What would make me wrong?
- Insisting on refutability discards useful positions that are not yet sharp enough to be refutable. What would make me wrong?
- A standard strict enough to exclude every bad claim excludes most of the good ones too. What counts as evidence?
- The standard is set by the same community that is judged against it. What counts as evidence?