Knowledge or belief?

Our local philosophers café will soon have an evening discussing "What do you really know and how do you know it?

I am more comfortable thinking in terms of what I believe rather than what I know.
This has some advantages to me.

No one can say I am wrong when I tell them my belief. They have no way of "knowing" what my beliefs are. I would like to thus nudge them into a query "what is the basis of your belief?" or into an invitation to dialoge, "my belief is different and is based on…".

It compels me to think of my beliefs as subject to modification as I encounter other beliefs, new sources of information, or alternative modes of analysis.

It calls on me to examine the basis of my beliefs. In most cases I come face to face with the fact that most of my beliefs are based on second hand information and that information can be updated or other sources consulted. It is also possible that my reasoning may be faulty.

Most important it leads me to realize that while direct experience and observation are important they provide a very time and space limit to the information I use in formulating my beliefs. Most of the information that leads to my belief is second hand. It is the beliefs of my parents, of my teachers, of my contemporaries, of the books and newspapers I read, of the television I watch, of the radio I listen to, and of the web that I scan.

With this realization it becomes apparent that my "education" consists largely of learning to evaluate second hand information, blend it in with my own direct experience, process it through my critical faculties, and form tentative beliefs. I use the term tentative to emphasize that my beliefs are not set and unalterable but are amenable to modification. This is consistent with the scientific method which leaves all conclusions tentative and subject to refutation and modification.

Personal responsibility is a central core of this view. I am responsible for the information that I gather directly or from secondary sources. I am responsible for the manner in which I filter, confirm, and process the information to form my beliefs. I am responsible for when, where and to whom I express my beliefs.