The philosopher Avishai Margalit put this nicely. “It is not the case that I am caught in a web of beliefs,” he wrote. “…Rather, I am caught in a network of witnesses.” Our relationships to these “witnesses”—the people and institutions that attest to the truth of various beliefs—predate and determine our reaction to whatever information they supply. As Margalit said, “my belief in [one of these witnesses] is prior to my belief that (what she says is true).”
