Knowledge

CF, following Critical Rationalism, defines knowledge functionally: it is purposeful information, information adapted to a goal so that it appears designed rather than random or arbitrary. Wherever there is the appearance of design, knowledge is present. Such adaptation is produced only by an evolutionary process — biological evolution or the conjecture-and-refutation thinking of a designer (see evolutionary epistemology). Knowledge is therefore error-corrected information: the more error correction, in quantity and effectiveness, the more knowledge an idea contains.

This definition deliberately rejects the standard philosophical account of knowledge as justified, true belief (JTB). CF says all three words fail. “Justified” presupposes justificationism, the false notion that positive arguments raise an idea’s standing; CF holds that ideas are only ever criticized, never supported. “True” is infallibilist: it implies anything later found to contain any error was never knowledge — yet our useful, effective ideas are almost never error-free. “Belief” wrongly excludes books and genes, which carry knowledge but hold no beliefs.

Drawing on the Greek distinction between epistēmē (infallible, divine knowledge) and doxa (fallible guesswork), CF insists humans possess only doxa. Treating doxa as non-knowledge collapses into skepticism. So knowledge needs no certainty and is not measured against truth we cannot confirm; it is fallible, tentative, and contextual. It is also not confined to minds: because knowledge is purposeful information rather than belief, books and genes carry knowledge though they hold no beliefs. Better and worse ideas are distinguished by degree of knowledge, not by proof.