---
title: Epistemic State
date: 2011-09-03
techne: :done
episteme: :believed
---

So, what's with these markers of [epistemic][Epistemology] states everywhere?

They signal my attitude towards the content. I wanted a way to show whether I
still believe something I have written or not. Or only partially, or never at
all[^fiction]. I didn't want to throw away old texts just because I changed my mind, but I
also couldn't let them sit around without an annotation or someone might think I
still endorsed them.

I'm not happy just going around like RAW, claiming I'm agnostic about
everything. And taking care to notice when you change your mind is very
valuable. Hence the markers.

[^fiction]: It's complicated in the case of fiction. Generally speaking, *some*
    aspects of it I do believe. Sometimes it represents a marginalized aspect of
    me. Some days I just don't want to care about making my reasoning clear; I
    just want to *write* something. Regardless, don't base your world-view on
    fiction, please. Fiction is treason.