The Reliability Delusion

Abstract

Let us meditate upon Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources, a content guideline on Wikipedia that we all consider pretty fundamentally important to Wikipedia's mission. Finding reliable sources is a more fundamental research skill than just Wikipedia though: in academia, in journalism, on the sister projects (Wikinews, Wikiquote, Wiktionary and Wikispecies). If you want to say something is a fact, one good way of doing so beyond direct empirical observation, the scientific method (direct observation's older, wiser, more self-critical sibling), or logical deduction from a priori principles (mathematics, logic, various branches of philosophy and much else) is to appeal to the testimony of others. And not just anybody, but testimony of people who can be relied on to give you something closely approximating reality to a close enough degree.