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SUBJECTIVE JUSTICE

Open for Debate

SUBJECTIVE JUSTICE

Posted on 8 July 2024 by

Can bad people be good judges? This question would have been unintelligible before the rise of the modern state, when moral character and expertise were deemed as inextricably linked.  Personal […]

Open for Debate

Confessions, intersectionality and personal pronouns

Posted on 24 June 2024 by

In the past decade or so, great achievements have been made in the emancipation of genderqueer persons. Not only has there been increased visibility of these individuals in politics and […]

Open for Debate

Truth, fiction and LLMs

Posted on 10 June 2024 by

The trope of the working novelist isolated for months at a time, hunched over a desk with yellow stained and repetitively strained fingers clacking away on a keyboard is no […]

Open for Debate

Non-ideal epistemology as a guidance for inquiry

Posted on 27 May 2024 by

In our daily lives, we conduct numerous inquiries. Some of them are aimed at questions that have no significant impact on our lives, such as which restaurant in town has […]

 
On Hope and Despair (Part II)

On Hope and Despair (Part II)

Posted on 13 May 2024 by

In the previous post, I raised the possibility that people can hope without hope, that is, hope for things that they simultaneously despair or feel unhopeful about. Far from being […]

On Hope and Despair (Part I)

On Hope and Despair (Part I)

Posted on 29 April 2024 by

In today’s world, it is not difficult to find something to despair about: Climate change, mass shootings, wars, reproductive rights, racism, social and economic inequality, and politics, just to name […]

Rethinking Manipulation: The Indifference View of Manipulation

Rethinking Manipulation: The Indifference View of Manipulation

Posted on 15 April 2024 by

In the series' Unpacking Manipulation in the Digital Age,' the previous five posts covered the rise of problematic forms of digital influence (Posts 1, 2, and 3), the need to […]

Unravelling the Complexity of Manipulation Theories

Unravelling the Complexity of Manipulation Theories

Posted on 15 April 2024 by

In the previous four posts of this series on 'Unpacking Manipulation in the Digital Age'(Post 1; Post 2; Post 3; Post 4), I argued that more attention to different types […]

Types of Social Influence and Manipulation Without Intention

Types of Social Influence and Manipulation Without Intention

Posted on 1 April 2024 by

In the previous two posts of this series on online manipulation, I outlined three developments that warrant closer attention to digital influence (here), and argued that a peculiar result is […]

The Rise of Digital Manipulation

The Rise of Digital Manipulation

Posted on 30 March 2024 by

In the previous post of this series on 'Unpacking Manipulation in the Digital Age,' I argued that problematic forms of influence can be unintentional but not accidental and that the […]

The Dark Side of Digital Influence

The Dark Side of Digital Influence

Posted on 18 March 2024 by

In the previous post, I outlined three reasons for paying closer attention to social influence in the digital landscape: the proliferation of social influence, the informational empowerment of social influence, […]

Unpacking Manipulation for the Digital Age

Unpacking Manipulation for the Digital Age

Posted on 18 March 2024 by

Public debate is shaped partly by human social influence, and we routinely distinguish different types of social influence, such as persuasion, coercion, and manipulation. While persuasion and coercion are reasonably […]

Slurring Images

Slurring Images

Posted on 4 March 2024 by

// content warning: racist language and racist imagery // In 2012, the Swedish artist Makode Linde displayed an extremely controversial work of art at the Modern Museum in Stockholm. In […]

Fundamentalism as a contested concept

Fundamentalism as a contested concept

Posted on 19 February 2024 by

Fundamentalism is a contested concept. In ordinary language and public discourse, it is applied to actions, beliefs, or groups that we condemn, disagree with, or wish to delegitimize. Highly mediatized […]

Zetetic standpoint epistemology

Zetetic standpoint epistemology

Posted on 5 February 2024 by ,

A central claim of standpoint theory is that the oppressed have an epistemic advantage over the dominant with respect to the workings of oppression. This ‘epistemic advantage thesis’ ranges over […]

Can Machines Manipulate Us?

Can Machines Manipulate Us?

Posted on 22 January 2024 by , ,

YouTube, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, and chatbots like ChatGPT and Bard—all of them are manipulating you. More specifically, their algorithms are manipulating you. Or so we now […]

The Epistemology of Rumours

The Epistemology of Rumours

Posted on 8 January 2024 by

Rumours disrupt official lines of communication and can derail policy. During the 2013 – 2016 West African Ebola outbreak, rumours were that medics were stealing bodies to be sold for […]

How to take an extremist seriously

How to take an extremist seriously

Posted on 25 December 2023 by

With the rise of polarization and support for right-wing populism, there is a call to take seriously the perspectives of those who seemingly turn away from liberal democratic ideals. But […]

We Should Complain

We Should Complain

Posted on 11 December 2023 by

I write about complaint to reduce its stigma. I teach classic philosophical texts that argue against it, so I realize the stigma is longstanding. Complaining is soft, Aristotle says. It’s […]

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

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 […]