---
title: Epistemic status
---

**Epistemic status** refers to the degree of belief the writer has in the
statements made in some writing. Many writers place **epistemic status tags**
at the top of their writings.

{% include toc.md %}

## History

## Examples

- Slate Star Codex uses epistemic status tags. You can find some examples
  through a [Google search](https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fslatestarcodex.com%2F%20%22epistemic%20status%22).
- gwern calls these tags **confidence tags**. He explains these in a [section
  on his website](https://www.gwern.net/About#confidence-tags). Note that they
  [used to be called belief tags](https://github.com/gwern/gwern.net/commit/59b7fed2544dec79b848d75c9bb0714ba40c96ca).
- Vipul Naik, e.g. in a [blog post](https://vipulnaik.com/blog/my-three-guiding-principles/)

## Variants

- [Epistemic effort](http://lesswrong.com/lw/o6m/epistemic_effort/)
- "Meta information" section on Timelines Wiki; [example](https://timelines.issarice.com/wiki/Timeline_of_Machine_Intelligence_Research_Institute#Meta_information_on_the_timeline)

## See also

- [Metadata]({% link epistemic-status.md %})

## External links