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The Epistemology of Synthetic Reality

PH201
Module 3: Testimony and Trust
3 Lessons

Most of what we know comes from others; what happens to that knowledge when sources can be fabricated.

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Testimony and Trust

1

Hume and Reid: Two Visions of Testimony

Explore how two great philosophers disagreed fundamentally about whether we can trust what others tell us, and why that disagreement matters when deepfakes emerge.

25 min
Theory
Examples
Quiz
Critical Questions
2

Epistemic Dependence and Trust in Institutions

You will understand how we come to believe institutional claims, why we delegate our trust, and what happens to that system when the sources of authority themselves become unreliable or fabricated.

25 min
Theory
Examples
Quiz
Critical Questions
3

Reliabilism: Does the Source of a Belief Matter?

You will understand how reliabilism judges knowledge by whether a belief-forming process is trustworthy, and why this matters when synthetic media can mimic reliable sources.

25 min
Theory
Examples
Quiz
Critical Questions