Testimony and Reasoning in Philosophy

The two terms testimony and reasoning are commonly used in philosophy and its concepts are immensely used in philosophical studies. However ,these two terms are used in day-to-day lives to bring out similar meanings as in philosophy.

What is Testimony?

The term  'testimony' in everyday usage in English is confined to reports by witnesses or by experts given in a courtroom, or other formal setting. 

But in  analytical philosophy, testimony is expressed as a process by which knowledge or belief is gained by understanding or believing in spoken or written reports of others irrespective of the setting. Simply , testimony intends to transfer beliefs from one person to another .

Testimony helps in spreading current news, gossips, rumors and one’s view in a community.  Testimonies are spread in written forms, verbally or by means of different signs and signals .The most common way of spreading testimonies is in spoken form. The speaker plays a major role in asserting the testimony and the hearer accepts or refuses the testimony and forms testimony beliefs based on his/her prior knowledge and perceptual experiences. David Hume stated that we only trust in testimony because experience has shown it to be reliable but where experience means individual observation and the expectations it gives rise to, this seems plainly false.

Figure 1. A quote of David Hume about testimony

How have testimonies influenced your life? For individuals who are knowledgeable and have desired skills of reasoning, testimonies might have been supportive and helpful in life. But for most individuals testimonies might have brought disastrous outcomes . For some, testimonies might have worked neutral in life. 

Testimonies can be considered as one of the main sources of beliefs .Most of our beliefs are second hand gained from different modes. Testimony plays a major role in forming beliefs and it depends on the grounding of the belief . It is not that all testimonies will form beliefs. It is so difficult to  derive testimony beliefs in a society like ours as most of the testimonies circulated are misinformation .So we must be mindful when dealing with such testimonies in life. 

The speaker conveying testimony should possess certain skills to make the testimony  acceptable. The speaker should tell a testimony in an assertive tone clearly and precisely in language known by the hearer. Then it is hearer's responsibility to perceive , understand the content and forces and derive testimony beliefs. The hearer has the total freedom in determining the necessity of forming testimony beliefs considering prior beliefs , practices , perceptual experiences of the the hearer and most importantly the trustworthiness of the speaker.

How can Reasoning and Testimony be Connected ?

Reasoning is thinking about something in a logical way to make sense. This is considered as a major skill that must be mastered by any individual to make sensible judgments and decisions. The act of reasoning is completely different and complex than what we think. It is said so because reasonings must satisfy the normative standards. 

Testimony beliefs can be subjected to reasoning by the speaker if he/she wants to make the testimony more asserted and to ensure the hearer believe the testimony without any doubts or confusions. This is how testimony and reasoning can be interconnected.

Reasoning patterns can differ from person to person whatsoever all reasoning must satisfy the required normative standards. It is sad to say that most of the human beings frequently fail to satisfy the appropriate normative standards of reasoning and this claim was supported by many experimental results. It was pointed out by the psychologists that reasoning also depends on the sorts of mental mechanisms utilized during the process. 

• Some disquieting evidences about how humans reason presented by psychologists were on : selective tasks , conjunction fallacies, base rate neglect , anchoring, and overconfidence.

The Standard Picture maintains the appropriate criteria to evaluate human reasoning. According to the Standard Picture, to be rational is to reason in accordance with the principles of reasoning that are based on rules of logic, probability theory and decision making.

If we are up to the standards of reasoning , then we can avoid pessimistic interpretations and be rational .A rational individual is someone who is sensible and is able to make decisions based on intelligent thinking regardless of emotions.

Therefore, as students learning philosophy we must also develop skills for belief acquisition, testimony belief formation and standard reasoning .Thereby, we can be rational  and avoid pessimistic interpretations.