How has the internet transformed epistemology?
From Internet: Knowledge and Community
The way in which the internet presents, manages, and defines knowledge has radically transformed epistemological theories. Socrates presented an approach to knowledge known as the justifiably true belief tradition. In this theory, something is knowledge if and only if it is: 1. Believed by someone and 2. That belief is true and 3. That true belief can be justified through some rational process. Critics of the JTB approach argue that such an epistemology is not applicable to knowledge as it exists on the internet because to “justify” a true belief is to partake in a psychological endeavor in which a person endorses a proposition. Knowledge in cyberspace is not merely possessed by individuals as it was in the days of Socrates and Plato, but rather by organizations and networks. The “justification” element of the JTB approach then it seems, would have to be replaced with something else that allows for information on the internet to be considered knowledge. A new theory of knowledge has then emerged which embraces the notion that something is knowledge if it is information that could be the basis for an action of some type or, “the useful information” approach. Some problems with this approach however, are that a belief does not have to be true in order to catalyze some kind of action. “Rules of thumb” and default reasoning are two examples in which a proposition could actually be false but it none the less leads someone to commit an action based on the belief. In order to make the “useful information” approach valid then, the requirement for truth would need to be replaced with the requirement for effectiveness.
