Should you believe it?
On the axis: Justification of belief · a claim received
Faced with a claim we cannot check for ourselves, what would make believing it justified: being able to trace it to first-hand evidence, its coherence with all we already know, or the reliability of the source it comes from?
A startling report is going around: a hushed-up scandal, a miracle cure, something "they don't want you to know". You can't check it for yourself. Should you believe it, and what do you rely on to decide?
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Justification
The project of the Meditations on First Philosophy is expressly foundationalist: to tear down every doubtful opinion and rebuild knowledge on a single unshakeable first principle, the cogito, whose certainty then supports the whole edifice. Knowledge rests on indubitable foundations, not on the mere coherence of a web of beliefs.
Meditations on First Philosophy, I-II
Anchors: Descartes · Reid