Damien Williams:
“Epistemic threat is the threat to the way that we understand and the way that we know things. And so when something arises as an epistemic threat we have this moment where we go okay but that’s not, that’s not true, that’s not knowledge, that’s not facts. And when our understanding of the world is challenged like that it can very quickly move into what we call an Ontological Shock if it is challenged for long enough”
Epistemology is the philosophical study of knowledge and related concepts, such as justification.
Also called theory of knowledge, it examines the nature and types of knowledge. It further investigates the sources of knowledge, like perception, inference, and testimony, to understand how knowledge is created.
Another set of questions concerns the extent and limits of knowledge, addressing what people can and cannot know.