Epistemological Defaultism

A meta‑bias that treats one’s own epistemological framework—what counts as knowledge, evidence, and justification—as the default, universal standard, and all other epistemologies as deviant or deficient. Epistemological defaultism appears when a Western empiricist dismisses indigenous knowledge as “anecdotal,” or when a rationalist rejects phenomenological insights as “subjective.” The bias lies in never recognizing that one’s own epistemic standards are historically and culturally situated. It closes off genuine dialogue because other ways of knowing are not even seen as candidates.

Example: “He dismissed her experiential knowledge as ‘not real evidence’—epistemological defaultism, unable to see that her framework had different standards, not lower ones.”

Epistemological Defaultism by Abzugal April 18, 2026