I can’t imagine having such database in a human mind. For every fact you would have to remember who told you about it (sometimes multiple people) and maybe also when they told it etc., so for each fact you would need something like a Wikipedia “talk page”.
I’m honestly curious. Think of a fact, and then ask yourself why you know it. Out of 5 attempts how many did you actually have no idea why that fact is there.
I would expect if I were to ask people why do you think daffodil flowers need lots of water they would at least say something like, oh I heard it somewhere (assuming that the do indeed believe this). From this I would choose to shift my belief only very very slightly.
It’s worth being cautious here: just because a brain can generate an answer to a question doesn’t mean that it was actually storing that information. “I heard it somewhere” may just be the default response when no supporting evidence can be found.
But your examples here are valid—sometimes we really do remember X separately from the evidence in support of X. And if X is something important this is probably to be encouraged.
I can’t imagine having such database in a human mind. For every fact you would have to remember who told you about it (sometimes multiple people) and maybe also when they told it etc., so for each fact you would need something like a Wikipedia “talk page”.
It’s the fundamental question of rationality: What do you believe, and why do you believe it?
I’m honestly curious. Think of a fact, and then ask yourself why you know it. Out of 5 attempts how many did you actually have no idea why that fact is there.
I would expect if I were to ask people why do you think daffodil flowers need lots of water they would at least say something like, oh I heard it somewhere (assuming that the do indeed believe this). From this I would choose to shift my belief only very very slightly.
It’s worth being cautious here: just because a brain can generate an answer to a question doesn’t mean that it was actually storing that information. “I heard it somewhere” may just be the default response when no supporting evidence can be found.
But your examples here are valid—sometimes we really do remember X separately from the evidence in support of X. And if X is something important this is probably to be encouraged.