Blackwell Reference Online

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This term applies to the process whereby lay persons and scientists alike acquire their knowledge. A theory of this process has been proposed by Kruglanski (1989 , 1990). It depicts the cognitive and motivational factors involved in the formation and change of human knowledge on various topics. In this framework, knowledge is defined in terms of propositions (or bodies of propositions) in which a person has a given degree of confidence. Such definition imposes two requirements on a model of knowledge-formation: the contents of the knowledge have to be produced by the individual, implying a phase of hypothesis generation ; also, those contents have to be assessed to see how much confidence (if any) they inspire — implying a phase of hypothesis validation . The theory of lay epistemics holds that hypotheses are validated on the basis of relevant evidence. Relevance is determined by preexisting inference rules that, in the knower's mind, link together the “evidence” and the “conclusion” in an if-then fashion, e.g., “if everyone in the situation felt happy (the evidence) — the cause would have resided in the external context (the conclusion).” Occasionally, competing inference rules may be invoked, e.g., “if everyone in the situation felt happy — the cause would have resided in an internal state of alcoholic intoxication common to all the participants.” Choice between plausible competing ... log in or subscribe to read full text