CfP: Epistemic Subjects Beyond Individuals (July 30-31, 2019 - Brussels)

Traditionally, epistemologists have investigated the nature of epistemic properties (e.g. knowledge, belief and understanding) on the assumption that they apply to human individuals and to human individuals only. Meanwhile technology and social collaboration are playing an increasingly large role in scientific practice, and our conceptual tools are lagging behind in taking this into account. 

Objective of the Workshop
It is time to take a closer look at the “epistemic subject” as an explanatory concept and how it may fare in explaining entities beyond individuals. Taking into account not only perspectives from social epistemology, but from philosophy of science, philosophy of mind and cognitive science, the objective of the workshop will be to reflect upon the idea of epistemic subjects beyond human individuals - namely, the possibility of attributing understanding, knowledge or beliefs to collective, extended or artificial subjects as well as how to conceptualise them. The range of topics will include:
  • Collective understanding, epistemic abilities, and distributed cognition
  • Collective knowledge, and collective know-how
  • The nature and demarcation of epistemic agency
  • Relations between epistemic properties of the group and its members: kinds of non-summativism, emergence and reducibility-relations
  • Extended epistemology and extended cognition
  • Android epistemology and artificial cognition

Keynote speakers:
  • Deborah Tollefsen
  • Duncan Pritchard
  • Orestis Palermos
  • (More TBC)

CfP
- CfP: consist of an abstract of up to 700 words (in PDF) to be submitted by 29 March at: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=esbi2019
- Submission Guidelines: There are 7 open slots (30 minute talk, no less than 15 minute discussion). We are especially (but not exclusively) interested in papers concerning collective understanding (i.e. understanding that is embodied rather than embedded in groups).


Online

Contact
- Organiser: Sven Delarivière, CLPS, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (sven.delariviere@vub.be)