A few months into the pandemic, and I was surprised so many people explicitly rejected expert advice. Mostly, I was shocked by their arguments: they said that scientists keep changing their minds; that not all scientists agree on what we… Read More ›
Books and Book Reviews
Book Review contributions are single-authored or multiple-authored reviews of recent books in the area of social epistemology.
Algorithmic Opinion Mining and the History of Philosophy: A Response to Mizrahi’s For and Against Scientism, Andreas Vrahimis
As Moti Mizrahi’s editorial introduction points out, For and Against Scientism ‘arises from an exchange between several scholars over the pages of the Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective’ (Mizrahi 2022, 18) in response to Mizrahi (2019). Mizrahi (2019) defended… Read More ›
A Review of Gulson, Sellar, and Webb’s Algorithms of Education, Daniel Shussett
In a time when the layperson theorizes at length on social media about the impact of artificial intelligence (such as ChatGPT, in recent months) on our daily lives, an academic treatment of the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on education… Read More ›
Philosophy of Science and Social Activism, Ilya Kasavin
How can a philosopher of science contribute to the social good? Posing this question performs a step in the ethic of science. It is more than a question, it is a problem, and not only a theoretical but also a… Read More ›
Being at the Crossroads: On the Mission of the Social Philosopher of Science | Review of Kasavin’s A Social Philosophy of Science, Lada V. Shipovalova and Yulia V. Shaposhnikova
The work of a philosopher of science, just as any other cognitive and social activity, can and should be accompanied by reflexivity. This accompaniment provides an opportunity to think oneself in the place of the Other, to step constructively beyond… Read More ›
Postmaterialism, Anyone? Brian Martin
Conventional scientific theories can’t explain telepathy and precognition. Nor can they provide a convincing explanation for consciousness. The usual scientific assumption is that the material world is all there is. To explain anomalous evidence, should this assumption be superseded by… Read More ›
Review: John Troyer’s Technologies of the Human Corpse, Mark D. West
In some ways, we moderns are as much in the dark as were the ancients when we contemplate death. Currently holding sway in the West is the “metabolic definition,” as laid out by Schrödinger in 1944, which suggests that life… Read More ›
Review: Daisy B. Herndon’s American Nuclear Deception: Why the Port Chicago Experiment Must be Investigated , Lee Basham
As the African proverb says, until the Lion tells the story, the glory goes to the hunter. — Daisy B. Herndon As I understand, the Lion was needlessly assassinated, and the hunter thought the hero.[1] Epistemology studies the acquisition and… Read More ›
A Match and Some Gasoline, Des Hewitt
Michael Gibson’s Paper Belt on Fire: How Renegade Investors Sparked a Revolt Against the University is inextricably linked to my own interests: the university and its purpose. You might think that I will find it an easy book to review…. Read More ›
Nothing to Lose but Our (Digital) Chains! Adam Riggio
Digital Humanism: A Philosophy for the 21st Century, Christian Fuchs’s latest book, is a collection of essays that are linked, broadly, through examining different aspects of the digital humanities and humanity’s becoming digital. The best essays in the book cover… Read More ›