In military intelligence, it comes to deciding when you have enough evidence you can claim is objective (that would be evidence other people agree means what you think it means). At some point, you believe you have enough and call a thing a "fact."As an epistemological solipsist for over fifty years I can assure you that people fail miserably at those two things... but understandably so. If we had to rationalize everything we believed, even to ourselves, we'd of gone stark raving mad a long, long time ago. It's best just to believe what you believe without having to explain why... that's what a God of the gaps is for.
When I was training young analysts, I'd tell them to type out their analytical conclusions in red font. When they found one reliable corroborating source, they could type that conclusion in blue font. When they'd found two reliable collaborating sources, they could change that conclusion to green font. When they found three collaborating sources they could change that conclusion to black font.
But sometimes we had to brief even though we didn't have all the data we wanted. If they had to publish the analysis short of collaborating sources, they had to qualify those conclusions as "probable" or "possible," depending on the number and reliability of collaborating sources. And the rating of reliability of sources was a whole other process.
Admiral Jacoby also told me, "It's okay to be mistaken, but never be wrong. Mistaken is when you tell me. Wrong is when you don't."
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