'TESTIMONY' AS A PRIMARY SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE: AN EXAMINATION

Abstract

This paper examines the primacy of testimony as a source of knowledge. Most discussions in the literature of classical Epistemology often identify the senses (perception), reason and memory as the primary sources of knowledge. Testimony - knowledge or information a hearer gets from the speaker - has either been neglected or made to play the second fiddle on the grounds that testimony-based beliefs cannot be reliably justified as a genuine source of knowledge and sometimes the reliability of testimony (if any) is linked to other sources of knowledge (the reductionist thesis). This paper seeks to present the primacy of testimony as a source of knowledge arguing that knowledge whether gotten from the senses, reason and memory etc is not entirely subjective but has a social dimension which is rooted in the testimony of others. The study employs analytic method.