Perception and Testimony as Data Providers Faculty of Philosophy And

The article addresses two questions. First, if knowledge is accounted information, how are we supposed (to apply this analysis in order) to understand perceptual knowledge and knowledge by testimony? In the first part of the article, I articulate an answer in terms of a reinterpretation of perception and testimony as data providers rather than full-blown cases of knowledge. Second, if perception and testimony are correctly understood as data providers, how are we supposed (to apply this analysis in order) to understand the semantic value of the data provided by such processes? In the second part of the article, I argue in favour of a constructionist hypothesis about how data may become meaningful for human cognitive agents through a process of repurposing of natural data/signals. The conclusion of the paper is that human agents are natural-born data hackers.