The Authority of Wikipedia

Abstract

Philosophers of argumentation and of testimony suggest that we can rely on what someone says because of its epistemic merits. If so, then we should never credit Wikipedia, since we cannot assess what its anonymous contributors know. I propose instead that Wikipedia can have pragmatic merits, in that the contributors’ passion for the project, and the emerging communicative design through which that passion is made manifest, provide a reason for trust.

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Citations of this work

Trust, relevance, and arguments.Fabio Paglieri & Cristiano Castelfranchi - 2014 - Argument and Computation 5 (2-3):216-236.

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References found in this work

Getting told and being believed.Richard Moran - 2005 - Philosophers' Imprint 5:1-29.
An inquiry concerning human understanding: with a supplement, An abstract of A treatise of human nature.David Hume - 1955 - Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Educational. Edited by Charles William Hendel & David Hume.
On Trusting Wikipedia.P. D. Magnus - 2009 - Episteme 6 (1):74-90.
Toward an epistemology of Wikipedia.Don Fallis - 2008 - Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 59 (10):1662--1674.

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