In this forum, members and associates of the Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective examine significant issues and contestations arising in and beyond the era of COVID-19. A focal point arises as we consider whether or not to think of this time as a global “social experiment.” If we view the era of COVID-19 as an experiment, what might we question or determine about our understanding of what it means to be human? How might we then pursue the human endeavor that consists, in part, of myriad activities surrounding our desire to know and reimagine ourselves and the world in which we live? As I write this preface on 8 April 2020, President Trump tweeted: “… the horror of the Invisible Enemy […] must be quickly forgotten.” And so, the dialectical challenge we confront in this forum.

Image credit: Trinity Care Foundation via Flickr / Creative Commons

Contents

• “Anarchy in the UK? Vaccine Immorality or Scientific Sense?” Des Hewitt.
• “Resilience,” Des Hewitt.
• “The Emergence of Civil Libertarian Science in Pandemic Times,” Steve Fuller.
• “Behavioural Insights from the Pandemic: Experiencing the State’s Pseudo/Quasi Sociological Approach to Social Control and COVID-19,” Des Hewitt.
• “‘We’re Flying the Plane While We’re Building It’: Epistemic Humility and Non-Knowledge in Political Decision-Making on COVID-19,” Jaana Parviainen.
• “’New Infrastructure Investment'(新基建) in China: A Proactionary Measure After the COVID-19 Crisis,” Cong Wang.
• “The Elective Affinities Between Jair Bolsonaro’s Ideological Wing and Edir Macedo’s Theology: The Case of COVID-19,” Leonardo Vasconcelos de Castro Moreira.
• “One Nation Under Lockdown,” Kathryn Johnson, Taylor Loy, David Dansereau, Maria Gomez, George Atalla, Nataliya Brantly, and Sonja D. Schmid.
• “A Quiet Life: An Essay Inspired by Steve Fuller’s ‘When A Virus Goes Viral—Life With COVID-19’,” Des Hewitt.
• “Corona-Party at the Ruins of an Earthquake,” Petar Jandrić.
• “Learning from the Pandemic: Catastrophic Epistemology,” Francis A. Beer and Robert Hariman.
• “Are the Experts Responsible for Bad Disaster Response? A Few Lessons for the Coronavirus Outbreak From L’Aquila,” Federico Brandmayr.
• “Thomas Hobbes in the Time of Coronavirus,” M. John Lamola.
• “Fourth Order Thinking About the Pandemic: A Transhumanist Challenge,” Steve Fuller.
• “Quo Vadis European Union?” Regina Queiroz.
• “Design, Evolution and Extension: Facing the Challenge of COVID-19 Together,” Gregory Sandstrom.
• “The Academy Under Siege,” Denise L. Davis and Raphael Sassower.

Categories: Forums

Tags: academic budgetary smokescreens, academic freedom, catastrophic epistemology, civil libertarian science, David Dansereau, Denise L. Davis, epistemic humility, Francis A. Beer, freedom of expression, George Atalla, graduate programs, graduate students, Gregory Sandstrom, In and Beyond the Era of COVID-19, Jaana Parviainen, Kathryn Johnson, Leonardo Vasconcelos de Castro Moreira, Leviathan, Maria Gomez, Nataliya Brantly, Petar Jandrić, precarious faculty, Raphael Sassower, Regina Queiroz, remote learning, Robert Hariman, Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective forum, Sonja D. Schmid, Steve Fuller, Taylor Loy, Thomas Hobbes, transhumanism