Situationism for Groups: Collective Epistemic Virtues in a Non-Ideal World

Description

The situationist challenge calls into question the existence of cross-situationally robust character traits and cognitive capacities, putatively undermining the empirical commitments of virtue and vice epistemology. While the suggestion that the situationist challenge gains traction on group agents may sound surprising, I argue that the cognitive behavior of group agents is subject to a wide range of situational influences; indeed, our non-ideal world is rife with influences that seriously impede the ability of groups to process information reliably and responsibly - from market pressures in the case of corporations to global pandemics and regional conflicts in the case of governments. The central claim I defend here is that these influences call into question the existence of collective epistemic virtues and vices in much the same way that situational influences challenge the existence of their individual counterparts (though virtue theorists can marshal similar defenses as well).

Period	2 Jun 2023
Event title	Epistemic Virtues and Vices in a Non-Ideal World
Event type	Conference
Location	Nottingham, United KingdomShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International