Epistemic status is a fancy word for "how much I think I know" about something. This is an interesting idea in itself. First, we know things with different levels of certainty. For instance, I know what is a cat, but I am not entirely sure what are the factors that cause a cat to be of a particular size, colour or disposition. Second, what we think we are certain about itself varies in accuracy. I might be pretty certain that San Francisco is the capital of California, but this might be factually wrong. If I were an honest person, I should update my knowledge and know that Sacramento is the Californian capital. Third, facts change over time. The USSR collapsed in the early 1990s leaving the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Georgia and many other smaller states in its place. If had been living in a cave since then, I might be quite certain that the USSR exists. The upshot is the epistemic status of epistemic statuses is itself tentative, recursively. This is fascinating. This should make us humble. One of my favourite phrases is "the humility of knowledge, the arrogance of ignorance". This is perhaps a [[twainism]]. ## My status symbols The epistemic status of my notes is influenced by coffee: it is either [[bean]], [[brewing]], [[brewed]], [[overbrewed]] or [[in-the-sink]]. ## Colophon Status: [[Brewing]]