sqwxl / sources

Socially determined truth criteria

sources

Socially determined truth criteria

"Sources" is a tool to help determine the truth-value or trustworthiness of claims according to socially determined truth criteria making up what I call truth paradigms.

Truth criteria are what allow us to judge the truth value of claims within the context of a particular truth paradigm. For example, in the scientific truth paradigm, evidence-based truth criteria will determine the truth-value of claims according to the quantity and quality of supporting evidence. In the religious truth paradigm, faith-based truth criteria will determine the truth-value of claims based on axiomatic statements.

Of course, the reality is more nuanced than the above examples. Science relies on it's own axiomatic beliefs (ie reductionism) and religious scholars do not dismiss the role of material evidence in establishing the truth. The role of Sources is to make the complex and often unseen tangle of inference and argumentation that constitutes a body of knowledge visible and explicit.

Crucially, determining what is true is a social process. "Sources" aims to provide a platform on which users can propose and discuss the truth criteria that make up truth paradigms and then go on to use those criteria to engage in community decisions as to the truth-value of claims in all branches of knowledge.

"Sources" is a work-in-progress hobby project with no planned release date