truth sources

Truth can come from many different sources. One group of sources, here to be referred to as "personal", is connected to oneself. This group includes personal experience, reason, intuition, and so forth. Other sources clearly fall into another group, here to be referred to as "extrapersonal", which is truth sources outside oneself. Individual truths from any of the sources in either group is potentially suspect. So is each truth source as a whole. However, speaking in general, the personal truth sources are less questionable than the extrapersonal truth sources.

The point is, someone else, who says one truth is "supported by the evidence" and that a second truth is "unsupported by any evidence", is an extrapersonal truth source to the listener. Moreover, the speaker is probably referring to one of his or her own extrapersonal truth sources, who in turn were referring to yet other extrapersonal truth sources, etc. This mesh of extrapersonal truth sources all referring to and trusting one another, here to be referred to as a "hive", has a more complicated value compared to other truth sources. Is a hive of five people referring to mere extrapersonal truth sources more trustworthy than one person who refers to a personal truth source? What if the one person's personal truth source is likely biased?

Someone in a hive may vehemently state a truth because it comes from the hive. He or she may also speak of evidence, when the "evidence" is purely extrapersonal yet reinforced by the hive--a refined version of hearsay and rumor. "Look at our hive. We all think the same way about this topic. If you disagree, you're ignoring the evidence, which is attested to by everyone in the hive." "Evidence" which came from some other source, which was passed on from some other source, which was passed on from other source, etc., is hive thinking masquerading as a personal truth source. Regard it as such.