In chapter 5, Section B, Epstein talks about criteria for accepting or rejecting claims. He writes that there are no absolute rules for when to accept, when to reject, and when to suspend judgment about a claim. The first point he mentions and the concept I found most interesting was personal experience. Our most reliable source of information about the world is our own experience. Our beliefs derive from our own personal experience. As we go on through life, our beliefs grow from what we see, read, hear, or think about. So, when it comes to accepting or rejecting claims, our own personal experiences plays a key role. For example, we're not going to believe something someone said if we've experienced it ourselves. If someone said, " It always snows in San Jose, and it's really cold." I would immediately reject this claim, because I go to school here at SJSU and I know that it does not snow here from personal experience. So, in conclusion, we accept a claim if we know it's true from our own experience and we reject a claim if we know it's false from our own experience. However there are a couple of exceptions:
A) we have good reason to doubt our memory or our perception
B) the claim contradicts other experiences of ours and there is a good argument against the claim.
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