Street Epistemology
Overview
Street Epistemology (SE) is a conversational method for exploring how a person arrived at a belief and how confident they are in it, by asking questions rather than making arguments. The interlocutor is invited to state a claim, rate their confidence, identify the main reason they hold it, and then examine whether that reason is reliable, usually by asking whether the same method would lead someone else to a different conclusion. The practitioner does not argue for their own view and does not try to win.
The method was developed from Peter Boghossian's A Manual for Creating Atheists (2013) and popularised online by Anthony Magnabosco and others. It has since been applied far beyond religion, to political, conspiratorial, and everyday beliefs, and to the practitioner's own.
Website: https://www.streetepistemology.com/
Notes
- SE fits my account of Knowledge: a model is only revised when one of its predictions visibly fails, and no surprise can be delivered by someone who has been cast as an enemy. SE avoids becoming the enemy. The person tests their own model, and the surprise, if there is one, is their own discovery.
- It is also an exercise in Steelmanning, since one cannot ask good questions about a belief without first understanding it as its holder does.
- All of my positions are available as claims for SE practice, and I am as happy to be the interlocutor as the practitioner.