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March 28, 2013 0 Comments Short URL EPISTEME, Epistemology, social epistemology episteme, epistemology, social epistemology
Group Knowledge and Group Rationality: A Judgment Aggregation Perspective
Christian List
Volume 2 / Issue 01 / June 2005, pp 25 – 38
Margaret Gilbert
Volume 1 / Issue 02 / October 2004, pp 95 – 107
Group Knowledge Versus Group Rationality: Two Approaches to Social Epistemology
Alvin I. Goldman
Volume 1 / Issue 01 / June 2004, pp 11 – 22
Is Trust an Epistemological Notion?
Gloria Origgi
Volume 1 / Issue 01 / June 2004, pp 61 – 72
Minding One’s Cognitive Systems: When Does a Group of Minds Constitute a Single Cognitive Unit?
Robert Rupert
Volume 1 / Issue 03 / February 2005, pp 177 – 188
The Epistemic Features of Group Belief
Kay Mathiesen
Volume 2 / Issue 03 / October 2006, pp 161 – 175
Roger Koppl
Volume 2 / Issue 02 / June 2006, pp 91 – 106
What’s the Point of “Knowledge” Anyway?
Christoph Kelp
Volume 8 / Issue 01 / February 2011, pp 53 – 66
The Basis of Epistemic Trust: Reliable Testimony or Reliable Sources?
Melissa A. Koenig and Paul L. Harris
March 23, 2013 0 Comments Short URL EPISTEME, social epistemology episteme, epistemology, social epistemology
This marks the first year we have published on a quarterly cycle and compared with most journals, we are up to date with no backlog: contents and abstracts
EVIDENCE AND INTUITION
Yuri Cath
Many philosophers accept a view – what I will call the intuition picture – according to which intuitions are crucial evidence in philosophy. Recently, Williamson (2004, 2007: ch. 1) has argued that such views are best abandoned because they lead to a psychologistic conception of philosophical evidence that encourages scepticism about the armchair judgements relied upon in philosophy. In this paper I respond to this criticism by showing how the intuition picture can be formulated in such a way that: (i) it is consistent with a wide range of views about not only philosophical evidence but also the nature of evidence in general, including Williamson’s famous view that E = K; (ii) it can maintain the central claims about the nature and role of intuitions in philosophy made by proponents of the intuition picture; (iii) it does not collapse into Williamson’s own deflationary view of the nature and role of intuitions in philosophy; and (iv) it does not lead to scepticism.
REGULARITY REFORMULATED
Weng Hong Tang
This paper focuses on the view that rationality requires that our credences be regular. I go through different formulations of the requirement, and show that they face several problems. I then formulate a version of the requirement that solves most of, if not all, these problems. I conclude by showing that an argument thought to support the requirement as traditionally formulated actually does not; if anything, the argument, slightly modified, supports my version of the requirement.
THREE FORMS OF INTERNALISM AND THE NEW EVIL DEMON PROBLEM
Andrew Moon
The new evil demon problem is often considered to be a serious obstacle for externalist theories of epistemic justification. In this paper, I aim to show that the new evil demon problem (‘NEDP’) also afflicts the two most prominent forms of internalism: moderate internalism and historical internalism. Since virtually all internalists accept at least one of these two forms, it follows that virtually all internalists face the NEDP. My secondary thesis is that many epistemologists – including both internalists and externalists – face a dilemma. The only form of internalism that is immune to the NEDP, strong internalism, is a very radical and revisionary view – a large number of epistemologists would have to significantly revise their views about justification in order to accept it. Hence, either epistemologists must accept a theory that is susceptible to the NEDP or accept a very radical and revisionary view.
JUSTIFICATION AS ‘WOULD-BE’ KNOWLEDGE
Aidan McGlynn
In light of the failure of attempts to analyse knowledge as a species of justified belief, a number of epistemologists have suggested that we should instead understand justification in terms of knowledge. This paper focuses on accounts of justification as a kind of ‘would-be’ knowledge. According to such accounts a belief is justified just in case any failure to know is due to uncooperative external circumstances. I argue against two recent accounts of this sort due to Alexander Bird and Martin Smith. A further aim is to defend a more traditional conception, according to which justification is a matter of sufficiently high evidential likelihood. In particular, I suggest that this conception of justification offers a plausible account of lottery cases: cases in which one believes a true proposition – for example that one’s lottery ticket will lose – on the basis of probabilistic evidence.
EVIDENCE OF EVIDENCE AND TESTIMONIAL REDUCTIONISM
William D. Rowley
An objection to reductionism in the epistemology of testimony that is often repeated but rarely defended in detail is that there is not enough positive evidence to provide the non-testimonial, positive reasons reductionism requires. Thus, on pain of testimonial skepticism, reductionism must be rejected. Call this argument the ‘Not Enough Evidence Objection’ (or ‘NEEO’). I will defend reductionism about testimonial evidence against the NEEO by arguing that we typically have non-testimonial positive reasons in the form of evidence about our testifier’s evidence. With a higher-level evidence principle borrowed from recent work on the epistemology of disagreement, I argue that, granting some plausible assumptions about conversational norms, the NEEO is unsound.
THE DANGERS OF USING SAFETY TO EXPLAIN TRANSMISSION FAILURE: A REPLY TO MARTIN SMITH
Chris Tucker
Many epistemologists hold that the Zebra Deduction (the animals are zebras, so they aren’t cleverly disguised mules) fails to transmit knowledge to its conclusion, but there is little agreement concerning why it has this defect. A natural idea is, roughly, that it fails to transmit because it fails to improve the safety of its conclusion. In his ‘Transmission Failure Explained’, Martin Smith defends a transmission principle which is supposed to underwrite this natural idea. There are two problems with Smith’s account. First, Smith’s argument for his transmission principle relies on a dubious premise (§1). Second, even if his transmission principle is true, Smith shows neither that it prevents the Zebra Deduction from transmitting knowledge to its conclusion, nor that it secures the natural idea (§2). I suspect that the failures of Smith’s account will be instructive for anyone who wants to connect transmission failure with a failure to enhance the safety, reliability or probability of one’s conclusion.
December 16, 2012 0 Comments Short URL EPISTEME, Epistemology, Internalism and externalism, Knowledge, Philosophy, social epistemology, Theory of justification, Truth episteme, epistemology
Volume 9 – Issue 03 – September 2012
HIGHER-ORDER EPISTEMIC ATTITUDES AND INTELLECTUAL HUMILITY
Allan Hazlett
RELIABILISM: HOLISTIC OR SIMPLE?
Jeffrey Dunn
GROUP AGENCY AND EPISTEMIC DEPENDENCY
Aaron Dewitt
CONSTRUCTIVIST AND ECOLOGICAL MODELING OF GROUP RATIONALITY
Gerald Gaus
EPISTEMOLOGY IN GROUP AGENCY: SIX OBJECTIONS IN SEARCH OF THE TRUTH
Fabrizio Cariani
HOW TO BE A REDUNDANT REALIST
Kurt L. Sylvan
THE NORMATIVE STANDING OF GROUP AGENTS
Rachael Briggs
EPISTEME SYMPOSIUM ON GROUP AGENCY: REPLIES TO GAUS, CARIANI, SYLVAN, AND BRIGGS
Christian List and Philip Pettit
November 6, 2012 0 Comments Short URL Psychology, Philosophy, Epistemology, EPISTEME, social epistemology, Social science, collective intentionality, Philip Pettit, Jeffrey Dunn, John Scalzi, group rationality epistemology
New issue now available featuring symposium on Christian List and Phillip Pettit.
HIGHER-ORDER EPISTEMIC ATTITUDES AND INTELLECTUAL HUMILITY
Allan Hazlett
RELIABILISM: HOLISTIC OR SIMPLE?
Jeffrey Dunn
GROUP AGENCY AND EPISTEMIC DEPENDENCY Aaron Dewitt
CONSTRUCTIVIST AND ECOLOGICAL MODELING OF GROUP RATIONALITY
Gerald Gaus
EPISTEMOLOGY IN GROUP AGENCY: SIX OBJECTIONS IN SEARCH OF THE TRUTH
Fabrizio Carrion
HOW TO BE A REDUNDANT REALIST
Kurt L. Sylvan
THE NORMATIVE STANDING OF GROUP AGENTS
Rachael Briggs
SYMPOSIUM ON GROUP AGENCY: REPLIES TO GAUS, CARIANI, SYLVAN, AND BRIGGS
Christian List and Philip Pettit
October 5, 2012 0 Comments Short URL collective intentionality, Deductive closure, EPISTEME, Epistemology, group agency, Jeffrey Dunn, Philip Pettit, Philosophy, Psychology, Reliabilism, social epistemology, Social science epistemology
This must surely be the most anticipated event in modern non-fiction publishing history. Here is a taster.
July 13, 2012 0 Comments Short URL Black Swan, Cognition, Cognitive science, complexity, Fooled by Randomness, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Risk, social epistemology, Spontaneous order antifragile, complexity, epistemology, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the black swan
Now available.
July 12, 2012 0 Comments Short URL EPISTEME, Epistemology, social epistemology episteme, epistemology, Formal Social Epistemology
The latest installment from the CSR special issue on EM of a couple of years back (three more papers to come).
June 13, 2012 0 Comments Short URL Andy Clark, Cognition, Cognitive neuroscience, Cognitive science, Epistemology, Extended Mind, philosophical psychology, Philosophy of mind epistemology
Yet another strong Wiley title. David Coady also did a fine job of guest editing EPISTEME for a themed issue on Conspiracy Theories (aside from Harry Frankfurt’s little book where else would a title in mainstream academia have the word “shit” so prominent – see Pete Mandik’s paper).
June 6, 2012 0 Comments Short URL David Hume, EPISTEME, Epistemology, Jason Stanley, Knowledge, Knowledge Management, social epistemology conspiracy theories, David Coady, episteme, epistemology, evidence, expertise, pete mandik, social epistemology, testimony, Wikipedia
Here is Walt Weimer’s brief but valued contribution to Hayek in Mind. Wiemer did so much to bring Hayek’s philosophical psychology to the wider world – and for that we are deeply indebted to him. It’s still really worth checking out Weimer’s work.
Occasionally I am asked how I came to the work of Friedrich Hayek and why I promoted it (to a mainly psychological audience) through conferences and writings in the 1970’s and 1980’s during the period when I was able to indulge my hobby of studying interesting questions as an “almost” or part-time academic (Weimer, 1974; 1982). Usually it is assumed that I was a psychologist who came across The Sensory Order (Hayek, 1952) and saw its relevance to the “cognitive revolution” then in progress. While partly true, I was never primarily a psychologist – I have always been a student of interesting problems and I do not recognize the sanctity of academic or bureaucratic boundaries. The only problem that consumes me is the nature of knowledge and its acquisition and use. My autobiography would be titled “What Little I Know” in contrast to a physicist of the ‘80’s famous for “What Little I Remember.” I am, in short, primarily an evolutionary epistemologist, as the field has been pioneered by Don Campbell. Hayek had studied the same issues and had similarly been an outsider, a “marginal man,” who was primarily an evolutionary epistemologist usually mistaken for either an economist or political philosopher.
June 3, 2012 0 Comments Short URL Austrian School, Cognition, Cognitive neuroscience, Cognitive science, complexity, consciousness, Embodied cognition, Epistemology, Ernst Cassirer, Extended Mind, Friedrich Hayek, Hayek, philosophical psychology, Philosophy of mind, Sensory Order, Weimer, Wilfrid Sellars distributed cognition, distributed knowledge, epistemology, evolutionary epistemology, social epistemology, the sensory order, walter weimer