Fallibilism: philosophical foundations and epistemological implications

Fallibilism

Brought up in a rather superstitious society, Joan was warned throughout her childhood not to walk under ladders as they bring bad luck. Her mother would often tell her the story of how she once walked under the ladder and then the same day had an accident.

Steve believes that Jupiter orbits around the sun in about 12 earth years because he was taught in his geography class that the fifth planet from the sun, Jupiter, was the largest planet in the solar system and its one complete orbit around the sun is in a period of nearly 12 earth years.

After Jonathan began to attend medical school, he was taught that penicillin is to be administered during infections as it is very efficient in curing it.

Mike is a die hard music fan and keeps a track of all the Music Awards just to be a witness to the moment when his favorite singer is awarded. Every year since the past three years he has been watching the Video Music Awards hosted by MTV and thus knows that MTV hosts it every year.

5. Living in the dark ages, Samantha was often told that she should not visit the old forest at night as witches come out then and cast spells and curse on those who enter their territory.

PART II

6. If one picks up the newspaper of the past or any book on the recent history of the past Presidents of the United States, it will be seen that Al Gore was never the president of the United States.

7. It has been scientifically proven with men witnessing the shape of the earth as seen from the moon that the earth is not flat but spherical.

8. Medically it has been proven that smoking is the cause of many harmful diseases and is addictive. We can ask any person who is a smoker to quit it there and then and it will be observed that they cannot thus proving that smoking is addictive in nature.

9. Adding 12 to 13 is a simple mathematical formula and does not require rocket science to understand. One can simply use a calculator or even the digits of the fingers to add 12 and 13 to find out that it is 25 and not 26.