261051 Social Epistemology: Application (S) (SoSe 2017)

The aim of this course is to give a non-formal overview of social epistemology. This field concerns the production of knowledge by communities of people, rather than individuals, and the effect of their social interaction on what we take to be (scientific) knowledge. We shall spend the first few seminars analyzing the following central questions: what does it mean to be an expert, why should we rely on the knowledge of others, what is epistemic injustice, and what are the social conditions under which objective knowledge can be produced? In the remainder of the course we discuss applications of these questions in different areas, both in science, such as the function of peer review and the public reception of scientific claims, and other social domains, such as democratic deliberation, evidence in legal reasoning, the media and public opinion.

Bibliography

Biddle, J. (2007). Lessons from the Vioxx debacle: What the privatization of science can teach us about social epistemology. Social Epistemology, 21(1), 21-39.
Fricker, M. (2003). Epistemic justice and a role for virtue in the politics of knowing. Metaphilosophy, 34(1‐2), 154-173.
Goldman, A., & Whitcomb, D. (Eds.). (2011). Social epistemology: essential readings. Oxford University Press.
Longino, H. E. (2002). Socializing Knowledge. In (idem.), the Fate of Knowledge (124-144). Princeton University Press.
Whyte, K. P., & Crease, R. P. (2010). Trust, expertise, and the philosophy of science. Synthese, 177(3), 411-425.