Testimony As Generative Source Of Knowledge: A Study And an Analysis of Lackey's View

Testimony as a source of knowledge has an irreplaceable role in individual and social life of humans. Although many questions are raised about testimony, the central question of this paper—written in the context of analytic epistemology—is whether testimony only transmits knowledge or it can, in addition, be considered as a source for generating knowledge. The response of Individualists is No, but communitarians believe that testimony can also be a generative source of knowledge. Of course, this question is so important that the positive response to it brought about communitarian theories in epistemology. After formulating Jennifer Lackey’s view—one of the communitarians— I will consider the problems of this view and try to respond to them.