Week 6 - Post 3: Criteria for Accepting or Rejecting Claims

In chapter five of Critical Thinking, Epstein goes over the criteria for either accepting or rejecting a claim. One of the major criteria for evaluating claims is based on personal experience. If a person knows that a piece of information is true based on their experience, it is perfectly acceptable to find the claim valid. The same can be said about rejecting claims. Epstein’s only exceptions to this rule are if, “We have good reason to doubt our memory or our perception,” or, “The claim contradicts other experiences of ours, and there is a good argument (theory) against the claim.” An example of such an exception could be an elderly person having doubt about information they have witnessed due to declining memory. It is also fine to accept a claim made by an informed source that is not being influenced by money from biased sources. For example, your family doctor will always provide truthful information regarding your health because they care for your well-being. Finally, it is safe to accept claims found from trustworthy sources such as peer-reviewed journals or media sources whose sponsors are not biased on the topic you are researching. By following these guidelines, it is much easier to decide which claims are truthful and which ones should be rejected.