Dilemmas of Knowledge Reliability

Text is devoted to analyzing the reliability of three types of knowledge: common know­ledge (CK), scientific knowledge (SK), and a new type of knowledge based on simulations in the virtual world, called protoscientific knowledge (PS-K). The degree of reliability of CK depends primarily on the credibility of the information that constitutes it. This, in turn, stems primarily from the credibility of the source, as well as the subsequent fate of the information, i.e., its transmission, storage, and processing. The degree of reliability of SK depends on the adopted criterion of truth of the judgments contained within it. Depending on the epistemological position, the frequently adopted criterion of truth is either classical or pragmatic. The degree of reliability of PS-K can be determined according to the so-called adequacy criterion, which is reduced to a pragmatic one at the operational level, but potentially this adequacy carries some explanatory power. The diagnosis of increasing reliability of these three types of knowledge in the case of CK is tinged with pessimism. In the case of SK, it indicates that getting closer to the truth, understood classically, seems to be of decreasing importance in the face of the development of PS-K. However, although the increase in the adequacy of PS-K guarantees technological progress, without taking into account the system of values ​​it will not translate into an increased sense of meaning in human life.