Social Epistemology

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

Social epistemology focuses attention on how knowers and knowledge depend on other persons, and on other aspects of the broader social environment. One focus is the "epistemology of groups," which asks whether and how social groups (corporations, nations, research teams) can themselves be the seat of knowledge. Another focus is the “epistemology of social systems,” which asks how features of social systems (legal systems, educational systems, political systems) can promote or undermine knowledge and other epistemic goods. Issues include: epistemology of testimony; the role of moral and political relations in the economy of knowledge; epistemic communities; relations between political status and epistemic status; epistemology of social-political discourse; epistemology of fake news; echo-chambers and information bubbles.