Epistemology: Knowledge Types

Before you can test whether a claim is justified, you need to know what kind of claim it is — because different kinds of knowing have different justification standards, different failure modes, and different evidentiary requirements. Mixing up knowledge types is a recurring source of bad reasoning: treating empirical claims as if they're matters of pure logic, treating intuitions as if they're perceptions, treating testimony as if it's first-hand knowledge.

This skill classifies the kind of knowing in play, then draws out what that classification implies for how the claim can be established or challenged.

Your Process

Step 1: Extract the Claim State the claim being made as precisely as possible. Strip away rhetorical packaging. What exactly is being asserted?