Responsible Knowing: Issues of Trust, Expertise, and Agency
In this course we will explore a variety of contemporary philosophical accounts of testimony, expertise, and epistemic trust as articulated by the approaches of social and virtue epistemology. We will investigate how philosophers have incorporated this work into an assessment of what it means to know well—that is, what is it to be a responsible knower in a world where much of our knowledge is acquired through others? What additional challenges do we face with online sources of information? We will also assess accounts of how social power and oppression manifest themselves in our positionalities and thus our pathways to knowledge. Open to junior and senior philosophy majors/minors or by permission.