A Social Theory of Knowledge

We rely on science and other organized forms of inquiry to answer cardinal questions on issues varying from global warming and public health to the political economy. In my thesis, which is in the intersection of philosophy of science, social epistemology, and science and technology studies, I devel...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Miller, Boaz
Other Authors: Chakravartty, Anjan
Language:en_ca
Published: 2011
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1807/27595
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spelling ndltd-LACETR-oai-collectionscanada.gc.ca-OTU.1807-275952013-04-17T04:18:45ZA Social Theory of KnowledgeMiller, Boazsocial epistemologyphilosophy of scienceknowledgeconsensusevidencescience and technology studiestestimonysocial values042205090344We rely on science and other organized forms of inquiry to answer cardinal questions on issues varying from global warming and public health to the political economy. In my thesis, which is in the intersection of philosophy of science, social epistemology, and science and technology studies, I develop a social theory of knowledge that can help us tell when our beliefs and theories on such matters amount to knowledge, as opposed to mere opinion, speculation, or educated guess. The first two chapters discuss relevant shortcomings of mainstream analytic epistemology and the sociology of knowledge, respectively. Mainstream epistemology regards individuals, rather than communities, as the ‎bearers of knowledge or justified belief. In Chapter 1, I argue that typically, only an epistemic community can collectively possess sufficient justification required for knowledge. In Chapter 2, I present a case study in computer science that militates against the sociological understating of knowledge as mere interest-based agreement. I argue that social interests alone cannot explain the unfolding of the events in this case. Rather, we must assume that knowledge is irreducible to social dynamics and interests. In Chapter 3, I begin my positive analysis of the social conditions for knowledge. I explore the question of when a consensus is knowledge based. I argue that a consensus is knowledge based when knowledge is the best explanation of the consensus. I identify three conditions – social diversity, apparent consilience of evidence, and meta agreement, for knowledge being the best explanation of a consensus. In Chapter 4, I illustrate my argument by analyzing the recent controversy about the safety of the drug Bendectin. I argue that the consensus in this case was not knowledge based, and hence the deference to consensus to resolve this dispute was unjustified. In chapter 5, I develop a new theory of the logical relations between evidence and social values. I identify three roles social values play in evidential reasoning and justification: They influence the trust we extend to testimony, the threshold values we require for accepting evidence, and the process of combining different sorts of evidence.Chakravartty, Anjan2011-032011-06-13T14:50:15ZNO_RESTRICTION2011-06-13T14:50:15Z2011-06-13T14:50:15ZThesishttp://hdl.handle.net/1807/27595en_ca
collection NDLTD
language en_ca
sources NDLTD
topic social epistemology
philosophy of science
knowledge
consensus
evidence
science and technology studies
testimony
social values
0422
0509
0344
spellingShingle social epistemology
philosophy of science
knowledge
consensus
evidence
science and technology studies
testimony
social values
0422
0509
0344
Miller, Boaz
A Social Theory of Knowledge
description We rely on science and other organized forms of inquiry to answer cardinal questions on issues varying from global warming and public health to the political economy. In my thesis, which is in the intersection of philosophy of science, social epistemology, and science and technology studies, I develop a social theory of knowledge that can help us tell when our beliefs and theories on such matters amount to knowledge, as opposed to mere opinion, speculation, or educated guess. The first two chapters discuss relevant shortcomings of mainstream analytic epistemology and the sociology of knowledge, respectively. Mainstream epistemology regards individuals, rather than communities, as the ‎bearers of knowledge or justified belief. In Chapter 1, I argue that typically, only an epistemic community can collectively possess sufficient justification required for knowledge. In Chapter 2, I present a case study in computer science that militates against the sociological understating of knowledge as mere interest-based agreement. I argue that social interests alone cannot explain the unfolding of the events in this case. Rather, we must assume that knowledge is irreducible to social dynamics and interests. In Chapter 3, I begin my positive analysis of the social conditions for knowledge. I explore the question of when a consensus is knowledge based. I argue that a consensus is knowledge based when knowledge is the best explanation of the consensus. I identify three conditions – social diversity, apparent consilience of evidence, and meta agreement, for knowledge being the best explanation of a consensus. In Chapter 4, I illustrate my argument by analyzing the recent controversy about the safety of the drug Bendectin. I argue that the consensus in this case was not knowledge based, and hence the deference to consensus to resolve this dispute was unjustified. In chapter 5, I develop a new theory of the logical relations between evidence and social values. I identify three roles social values play in evidential reasoning and justification: They influence the trust we extend to testimony, the threshold values we require for accepting evidence, and the process of combining different sorts of evidence.
author2 Chakravartty, Anjan
author_facet Chakravartty, Anjan
Miller, Boaz
author Miller, Boaz
author_sort Miller, Boaz
title A Social Theory of Knowledge
title_short A Social Theory of Knowledge
title_full A Social Theory of Knowledge
title_fullStr A Social Theory of Knowledge
title_full_unstemmed A Social Theory of Knowledge
title_sort social theory of knowledge
publishDate 2011
url http://hdl.handle.net/1807/27595
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