Folk Epistemology as a Program for Knowledge Acceptance Mechanisms Studies
The article presents the result of the folk epistemology analysis regarded as a direction of contemporary research in the field of human cognitive activity as well as goal setting of a folk epistemological research. On the example of several cases drawn from scientific and historical literature, the hypothesis is put forward that the work of non-expert consciousness with scientific knowledge is not always amenable to explanation by the mechanisms of the theory of scientific knowledge: the latter ignores the inherent social and mental aspects of the knowledge acceptance. The article shows that folk-epistemological perspective in the information society allows detecting value shifts from the truth and validity of knowledge to the need for knowledge, cognitive comfort and accessibility.