---
title: "Epistemology · Library · Simulation Hypothesis"
url: https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/epistemology
description: "Epistemology is the part of philosophy about what knowledge is, where it comes from, and where it runs out."
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
credit: "Ross Allan Dahl, Simulation Hypothesis (simulation-hypothesis.com)"
---

## Epistemology & reality

# Epistemology

Definition

Epistemology is the part of philosophy about what knowledge is, where it comes from, and where it runs out. It also covers what makes a belief justified.

On this site

The Honesty axis: whether the inhabitants could, in principle, find out how their world works.

Role in the model

The Honesty axis in the ethics radar measures one thing: whether the inhabitants of a scenario could, in principle, work out how their world runs. A world that hides how it’s rendered sets a trap for what its people can know. The meters score it down for that.

Related

[Skepticism](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/skepticism)[Solipsism](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/solipsism)[Brain in a vat](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/brain-in-a-vat)

## The people behind the terms

14 short pages, one per thinker, each with its matching dial. See also the [reading list](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/reading).

[Plato’s cave](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/plato)[Zhuangzi’s butterfly](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/zhuangzi)[Vasubandhu’s dream](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/vasubandhu)[Shankara’s māyā](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/shankara)[al-Ghazali’s doubt](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/ghazali)[Ibn Arabi’s imagination](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/ibn-arabi)[Calderón’s life is a dream](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/calderon)[Descartes’ demon](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/descartes)[Berkeley’s perceiver](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/berkeley)[Borges’ circular ruins](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/borges)[Nozick’s experience machine](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/nozick)[Putnam’s brain in a vat](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/putnam)[Bostrom’s trilemma](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/bostrom)[Chalmers: virtual worlds are real](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/chalmers)