Category Archive Browsing Category: social epistemology

The formation, acquisition, mediation, transmission and dissemination of knowledge in complex communities of knowers.

Browse by:
C.A.J. Coady, Frederick F. Schmitt, locke, philosophy of education, social epistemology, testimony

Lockean Social Epistemology

As mentioned in this paper, Locke and social epistemology is an improbable relation but  . . . Locke’s reputation as a sceptic regarding testimony, and the resultant mockery by epistemologists with social inclinations, is well known. C.A.J. Coady paints Locke as an extreme example of epistemological individualism; Frederick F. Schmitt argues that Locke regards testimony…

hayek, multi-agent modeling, palestinian-israeli conflict, Sapir Handelman, social epistemology, spontaneous orders

Hayek in Peace Studies

Here’s an interesting squib that references Hayek from Sapir Handelmanab who writes: According to this perception, an effective peacemaking process becomes a discovery procedure. I was influenced by Friedrich Hayek perception of market competition. According to Hayek, an efficient competitive market, under a framework of general rules and institutions, creates a spontaneous order. In our context,…

andrew sullivan, epistemology, fundamentalism, liberalism, michael freeden, michael oakeshott, social epistemology

Sullivan’s Oakeshott

Whatever difficulties one might find with Andrew’s eclectic philosophical reconciliation (queer theory, Catholicism, conservatism) he captures the essence of Oakeshott very well he in this “elevator speech.” Oakeshott’s so-called “conservatism” bears absolutely no resemblance whatsoever to the ossified character attributed to conservatism by “conservatives” of a fundamentalist stripe. In any event, ideologies are far more fluid…

constructivism, knowing how knowing that, Mary Jo Nye, polanyi, rationalism, social constructivism, social epistemology, spontaneous orders, steven shapin, tacit knowledge

Shapin on Polanyi

Shapin’s London Review of Books review of Michael Polanyi and His Generation: Origins of the Social Construction of Science by Mary Jo Nye. (Both Hayek and Oakeshott are mentioned by Shapin). Michael Polanyi lives on in the footnotes. If you want to invoke the idea of ‘tacit knowledge’, Polanyi is your reference of choice. You’ll probably…

Adams & Aizawa, Andy Clark, Bounds of Cognition, brain science, cognition, cognitive science, Cognitive Systems and the Extended Mind, collective intentionality, david chalmers, distributed cognition, embodied cognition, enaction, extended cognitive systems, extended mind, externalism, philosophy of mind, robert rupert, situated cognition, social epistemology, social ontology, sociocognition

Rob Rupert Papers

Check out two forthcoming papers from Rob Rupert, one of the sharpest minds around: 1. Against Group Cognitive States (forthcoming in S. Chant and G. Preyer (eds.), From Individual to Collective Intentionality. No listing on OUP’s website yet). English users are not fazed by such sentences as “Microsoft intends to develop a new operating system” and…

science, science wars, social constructivism, social epistemology

Paradoxical Roots of “Social Construction”

David Kaiser reviews Michael Polanyi and His Generation: Origins of the Social Construction of Science by Mary Jo Nye. Fifteen years ago, scientists, historians, and sociologists traded salvos in what was termed the “science wars.” Passions ran high; “social construction of science” became a battle cry. Critics like physicist Alan Sokal pointed an accusing finger at…

constructing the world, constructivism, distributed cognition, distributed knowledge, Heidegger, internet, Marshall McLuhan, network theory, networks, social cognition, social connectionism, social constructivism, social epistemology, social facts, social networking, social ontology, social reality

Knowledge Has Always Been Networked

Here is a rather scathing review of David Weinberger’s Too Big To Know: Rethinking Knowledge Now that the Facts Aren’t the Facts, Experts Are Everywhere, and the Smartest Person in the Room Is the Room. The renaissance of Marshall McLuhan in the era of the Web is disappointing for a number of reasons, not the least of…

cognition, distributed cognition, distributed knowledge, extended mind, externalism, forensic science, forensics, Itiel Dror, Roger Koppl, social epistemology, testimony

Ignorance is Bliss

Here’s an article in The Economist that my colleague, Roger Koppl, who has done terrific work in the field of forensic evidence, alerted me to. The article mentions Itiel Dror who I’ve been in correspondence with though Roger. I know Itiel’s work through his co-edited Cognition Distributed. Here is his co-authored “extended mind” chapter. Forensic scienceScience in Society