Vicious epistemic cultures ("Neřestné epistemické kultury")
Principal investigator: Doc. Laura Candiotto, PhD
Period: 1. 1. 2024 – 31. 12. 2026
Grant No. 24-11282S Czech Science Foundation Standard Grant
Abstract
The project examines the role of emotions in revision responsibility (the duty to revise one's false beliefs). It engages with the contemporary debate in vice epistemology for answering Heather Battaly’s responsibility problem (Philosophical Issues 2019). The project argues for a novel non-voluntarist account of revision responsibility grounded in a situated account of emotions in epistemic cultures. The working hypothesis is that emotions can contribute to belief revision responsibility by sparking motivation, providing basic evaluation, activating critical thinking, disclosing personal concerns, and constituting meaning if scaffolded by habits of coinquiry. The project focuses on a specific epistemic culture: online climate denialism. The power of online cultures over the individual’s epistemic lives is even stronger than that of offline cultures, given their pervasiveness and sophisticated tools for manipulating beliefs. Therefore, solving the responsibility problem in online denial cultures is more crucial than ever.
Team members
Principal investigator: Doc. Laura Candiotto, PhD
Applications Open: Research position for early career postdoctoral fellow in Epistemology, Media Studies, and Philosophy of Technology