Neil Levy says that he rejects something he calls my “solution to the problem” (2019 fn 3). This is doubly wrong, since I not only don’t advocate the so-called solution he ascribes to me, I also don’t think the so-called… Read More ›
Critical Replies
Critical Replies are engagements with articles recently published in Social Epistemology.
Suicidology is for Cutting: Epistemic Injustice and Decolonial Critiques, Jennifer White
Within suicidology, “cutting” most often refers to self-harming practices, which are generally conceptualized as pathological, problematic and a target for professional intervention. And yet, there are alternative (subjugated) meanings, informed by those who engage in self-harm, which can offer some… Read More ›
Talking Strategy: Conceptualizing Resistance in Oppressive Systems Through Play, Alice Fox
In her post “Inside a Game: Using Games as a Metaphor for Deconstructing the Oppressive Nature of Reality” (2020), Sindi Breshani utilizes the game Papers, Please to take a deep dive into oppressive realities and the ways in which political… Read More ›
Some Thoughts on the Relationship Between Scientism and Empirical Methods in Philosophy, Ryan Mitchell Wittingslow
Moti Mizrahi, in his 2019 “The Scientism Debate: A Battle for the Soul of Philosophy?” argues that the perceived threat of scientism to philosophy hinges upon a confluence of two distinct, but overlapping, phenomena. The first of these phenomena is… Read More ›
Some Demarcations and a Dilemma: Comments On Mizrahi, Kyriaki Grammenou
Let us start by examining a couple of assumptions which, albeit not explicitly, seem to inform Mizrahi’s text. He writes that “many philosophers seem to think that scientism poses a threat to them as teachers” and also that “scientism is… Read More ›
The Making of Bullshit Leadership and Toxic Management in the Neoliberal University, John Smyth
My over-arching argument in this article is that both academics and students in universities have been afflicted by a set of relations that Lauren Berlant refers to as ‘cruel optimism’ (2011). Cruel optimism according to Berlant, constitutes the holding out… Read More ›
Can Novices be Taught to Choose Trustworthy Experts? Optimism for Reasoning—A Reply to Johnny Brennan, Martin Hinton
In his article “Can Novices Trust Themselves to Choose Trustworthy Experts? Reasons for (Reserved) Optimism” (2020), Johnny Brennan does two things. He illustrates the problem of the identification of experts, which has caused a great deal of head-scratching for scholars… Read More ›
Hunting the Expert: The Precarious Epistemic Position of a Novice, Jamie Carlin Watson
In Lewis Carroll’s poem, “The Hunting of the Snark,” ten adventurers set out to find an elusive, likely dangerous, and possibly mythical, creature called a “Snark.” They plot their course with a map that shows only ocean—no land—and their captain… Read More ›
The Posthuman as Complex Dynamical Personhood: A Reply to Hyun-Shik Jun, Ilia Delio
In his article on “Posthuman Subjectivity and Singularity in the Nature-Culture Continuum” (2020) Hyun-Shik Jun examines Rosi Braidotti’s posthuman subjectivity through the post-structuralist and philosophical perspectives of Jacques Derrida and Giorgio Agamben. Whereas the technocratic paradigm seems to have eradicated… Read More ›
Rational Voting in European Parliament Elections: A Critical Reply to Wolkenstein, Faruk Aksoy
This essay is a critical reply to Professor Wolkenstein’s recent article (2020) “Epistemic Barriers to Rational Voting: The Case of European Parliament Elections.” Professor Wolkenstein offers a theoretical account by answering the question of whether voting in European Parliament elections,… Read More ›