Foundations and Applications of Social Epistemology: Collected Essays

Description

This volume collects twelve essays by Sanford C. Goldberg on the topic of social epistemology. The collection falls into two halves: the first half develops a proposal for a programme for social epistemology, its animating vision, foundational questions, and core concepts; the other half focuses on applications of this programme to particular topics. Goldberg characterizes the research programme as the exploration of the epistemic significance of other minds. This programme is dedicated to an examination of the various ways in which we depend epistemically on others, and to describe the proper way to evaluate beliefs according to the sort of dependence they exhibit. It thus provides the basis for identifying and characterizing various dysfunctions of our epistemic communities. The programme is put into practice by exploring such topics as the epistemic agency exhibited in inquiry, the practices that constitute news coverage, the basis for allegations of what we or others should have known, how reliance on another's testimony contrasts with reliance on an instrument, our reliance on others as consumers of testimony, and the epistemic significance of non-epistemic social norms--moral, political, professional, or relationship-based. Cover Title_Pages Contents Acknowledgments Introduction I. FOUNDATIONS 1. Social Epistemology, Descriptive and Normative 2. A Proposed Research Program for Social Epistemology 3. What We Owe Each Other, Epistemologically Speaking 4. Social Epistemology and Epistemic Injustice 5. Interpersonal Epistemic Entitlements 6. The Division of Epistemic Labor II. APPLICATIONS 7. The Epistemic Costs of Politeness 8. Can Asserting That p Improve the Speaker’s Epistemic Position (And Is That a Good Thing)? 9. Should Have Known 10. If That Were True I Would Have Heard about It by Now 11. Epistemically Engineered Environments 12. Epistemic Extendedness, Testimony, and the Epistemology of Instrument- Based Belief Index