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Suicidal Ideation or ‘Malingering’? A case of Testimonial Injustice.

Open for Debate

Suicidal Ideation or ‘Malingering’? A case of Testimonial Injustice.

Posted on 27 November 2023 by ,

Introduction According to the Office for National Statistics, 5,275 suicides were registered in England and Wales in 2022. Nevertheless, reports of the intent to kill oneself are not always met […]

Open for Debate

Extremism and the Good Life – Part 2

Posted on 13 November 2023 by

In the previous post I have argued that we need to adopt  a more complex picture of extremists. They are intellectual and practical agents responsive to both intellectual and practical […]

Open for Debate

Extremism and the Good Life – Part 1

Posted on 30 October 2023 by

“Want to live the good life? Join an extremist group!” This odd piece of advice flies in the face of thousands of years of ethical theorizing, not to mention common […]

Open for Debate

How to Become an Incel

Posted on 16 October 2023 by

Introduction Discussions around incels – involuntary celibates – have become prevalent across popular social media platforms such as X/Twitter. However, it is not always clear who exactly is behind the […]

 
Semmelweis, Socratic Ignorance and Listening in an Unjust World

Semmelweis, Socratic Ignorance and Listening in an Unjust World

Posted on 2 October 2023 by

Ignaz Semmelweis, a physician working in a charity hospital in Vienna in the mid 19th century, faced a tragic puzzle: he saw that the rates of puerperal (childbed) fever and […]

Exploratory Epistemic Justice and Question-Making Practices

Exploratory Epistemic Justice and Question-Making Practices

Posted on 18 September 2023 by Alessandra Tanesini

In questioning practices, people not only ask questions but also contemplate how their questions can be precisely expressed and attempt to discover a right question. For instance, we may confront […]

Corporations: the power of possibility and the possibilities of power

Corporations: the power of possibility and the possibilities of power

Posted on 4 September 2023 by

There is a way of thinking about business corporations which sees them as inherently enemies of social progress.  On this view, inspired by Marxist analyses of class conflict and antagonistic […]

“I hate cyclists!”

“I hate cyclists!”

Posted on 21 August 2023 by

True story: a friend who works for the NHS had to attend mandatory RESPECT training. The workshop convenor started the day with ice breakers, everyone was invited to say what […]

Drill Music and Epistemic Injustice

Drill Music and Epistemic Injustice

Posted on 7 August 2023 by

What are the legitimate ways of interpreting a musician’s work and words? This might seem like an abstract philosophical question, but it isn’t. This question matters because sometimes music is […]

What type of deference to science do we owe each other?

What type of deference to science do we owe each other?

Posted on 24 July 2023 by

How should the public respond to science communication, and how can science be communicated in a way that promotes such a response? A combination of philosophical and empirical research may […]

A Study of the Virtue of Epistemic Collaborativeness

A Study of the Virtue of Epistemic Collaborativeness

Posted on 10 July 2023 by

Agents can achieve far greater things when working in groups than individually. For instance, some of the most important scientific theories and findings have been the product of epistemic collaboration […]

Knowledge qua Expert

Knowledge qua Expert

Posted on 26 June 2023 by

As modern society becomes increasingly specialised, the need for laypeople to identify experts is more pressing than ever. But as everyone is more reliant on the internet, which is difficult […]

Opacity and trust in institutions

Opacity and trust in institutions

Posted on 12 June 2023 by ,

A typical lament of those, like academics, who work in large institutions is that so many of the decisions and operations of institutional life are opaque. This is often expressed […]

Reflection on values makes conversations more fruitful

Reflection on values makes conversations more fruitful

Posted on 29 May 2023 by

People often find it difficult to listen to the views of those with whom they disagree. For example, in the UK, oftentimes members of the same family consciously shun discussions […]

A Case against the Argument from “Collective Amnesia” and “Forgetting”

A Case against the Argument from “Collective Amnesia” and “Forgetting”

Posted on 15 May 2023 by

The term collective amnesia is often used to analyse cases or states in which morally, socially and politically pertinent knowledge, such as knowledge about historical injustices, is (arguably) absent or […]

Mind my extended mind: Guarding cognition’s non-organic parts

Mind my extended mind: Guarding cognition’s non-organic parts

Posted on 1 May 2023 by

Our smartphones and laptops are undeniably important. But in what sense? Are they simply valuable technological peripherals—not to be easily discarded or left behind—but complimentary devices, nonetheless? Or could they […]

Can People Be Epistemically Blameworthy?

Can People Be Epistemically Blameworthy?

Posted on 17 April 2023 by

We blame people for lots of things, such as stealing from others, forgetting our birthday, and voting for our political opponents. But it also seems that we sometimes blame people […]

A CONSPIRATORIAL PHILOSOPHER

A CONSPIRATORIAL PHILOSOPHER

Posted on 3 April 2023 by

Although much is being written these days about conspiracy theories, the topic of conspiracy theorizing in philosophy is not discussed in the literature.  Political epistemologists cherish easier topics, like the […]

Questions are a form of power (and who gets to ask them matters)

Questions are a form of power (and who gets to ask them matters)

Posted on 20 March 2023 by

Questions are a form of power. Given how ubiquitous they are in our everyday lives, this truth about questions is easy to miss but not, I think, hard to appreciate. […]

Leave it to the Machines? Re-evaluating the Kasparov reply

Leave it to the Machines? Re-evaluating the Kasparov reply

Posted on 6 March 2023 by

In 1997, Garry Kasparov became the first world chess champion to lose a match to a computer, IBM’s Deep Blue. Kasparov initially thought the IBM team cheated after the computer […]