Within the contemporary epistemology of testimony, it is widely assumed that testimonial sceptici... more Within the contemporary epistemology of testimony, it is widely assumed that testimonial scepticism can be dismissed without engaging with possible reasons or arguments supporting the view. This assumption of dismissibility both underlies the debate between reductionist and non-reductionist views of testimony and is responsible for the neglect of testimonial scepticism within contemporary epistemology. This paper argues that even given liberal assumptions about what may constitute valid grounds for the dismissal of a sceptical view, the assumption that testimonial scepticism is dismissible should be rejected. For even if familiar sceptical positions and scepticism about testimonial justification can be dismissed on such grounds, scepticism about testimonial knowledge cannot.
Modest pessimism about philosophical progress is the view that while philosophy may sometimes mak... more Modest pessimism about philosophical progress is the view that while philosophy may sometimes make some progress, philosophy has made, and can be expected to make, only very little progress (where the extent of philosophical progress is typically judged against progress in the hard sciences). The paper argues against recent attempts to defend this view on the basis of the pervasiveness of disagreement within philosophy. The argument from disagreement for modest pessimism assumes a teleological conception of progress, according to which the attainment of true answers to the big philosophical questions, or knowledge of them, is the primary goal of philosophy. The paper argues that this assumption involves a misconception of the goal of philosophy: if philosophy has a primary goal, its goal is the understanding of philosophical problems rather than knowledge of answers to philosophical questions. Moreover, it is argued that if the primary goal of philosophy is such understanding, then widespread disagreement within philosophy does not indicate that philosophy makes little progress.
This chapter gives an account of epistemic trust. It argues that trust in general is a matter of ... more This chapter gives an account of epistemic trust. It argues that trust in general is a matter of declining to take precautions against the trustee’s failing to come through, and that this amounts in the epistemic case to declining to rely on evidence for the testified proposition, instead relying solely on the testifier. But if this is so, how can trust play a positive role in securing knowledge? The key, it is argued, lies in recognizing that trust is preemptive: Trusting someone entails believing that she is trustworthy, and this belief preempts other evidence about whether she will come through. In other words, this belief gives the truster himself a good reason to desist from relying on evidence other than the trustee’s word. But if trust is preemptive, how is it compatible with epistemic responsibility, which seems to involve relying on your own evidence? Because, it is claimed, preempting your own evidence in favor of the testifier’s say-so enables your belief to be supported by her evidence – which, we may assume, is superior to your own. Far from forfeiting epistemic responsibility, then, epistemic trust on the preemptive account gives you justificatory access to a swathe of evidence that you would not otherwise have had.
The standard account of informed consent has recently met serious criticism, focused on the misma... more The standard account of informed consent has recently met serious criticism, focused on the mismatch between its implications and widespread intuitions about the permissibility of conducting research and providing treatment under conditions of partial knowledge. Unlike other critics of the standard account, we suggest an account of the relations between autonomy, ignorance, and valid consent that avoids these implausible implications while maintaining the standard core idea, namely, that the primary purpose of the disclosure requirement of informed consent is to prevent autonomy-undermining ignorance. The problem with the standard account, we argue, is that it fails to distinguish between different forms of ignorance–in particular, error and suspending ignorance–that have very different effects on individuals’ ability to provide valid consent. While error often undermines our ability to provide valid consent, suspending ignorance, we argue, does not. Once the moral weight of this distinction is appreciated, it becomes apparent that valid informed consent requires far less knowledge than suggested by the standard account.
Epistemologists of testimony widely agree on the fact that our reliance on other people's te... more Epistemologists of testimony widely agree on the fact that our reliance on other people's testimony is extensive. However, they have not always paid enough attention to the fact that our reliance on testimony is not only extensive, but also varied. That is, there is more than one way in which we can rely on a speaker's testimony to form a belief: Sometimes we treat a person's testimony that p as we treat any other piece of evidence. At other times, we just trust the speaker for the truth of what she says. Arguably, the latter is the normal way of forming a belief on the basis of other people's testimony. And while Paul Faulkner's important book presents an account of how we can obtain knowledge in both these ways its focus, as its title suggests, is on knowledge obtained through trust. Faulkner is one of a number of epistemologists who have attempted in recent years to explain how we can obtain knowledge by trusting others (Faulkner 2007;
On many science-related policy questions, the public is unable to make informed decisions, becaus... more On many science-related policy questions, the public is unable to make informed decisions, because of its inability to make use of knowledge obtained by scientists. Philip Kitcher and James Fishkin have both suggested therefore that on certain science-related issues, public policy should not be decided on by actual democratic vote, but should instead conform to the public’s counterfactual informed democratic decision (CIDD). Indeed, this suggestion underlies Kitcher’s specification of an ideal of a well-ordered science. This article argues that this suggestion misconstrues the normative significance of CIDDs. At most, CIDDs might have epistemic significance, but no authority or legitimizing force.
W.V.Quine and Philip Kitcher have both developed naturalistic approaches to the philosophy of sci... more W.V.Quine and Philip Kitcher have both developed naturalistic approaches to the philosophy of science which are partially based on a skeptical view about the possibility of rational inquiry into certain questions of value. Nonetheless, both Quine and Kitcher do not wish to give up on the normative dimension of the philosophy of science. I argue that Kitcher's recent argument against the specification of the goal of science in terms of truth raises a problem for Quine's account of the normative dimensions of the discipline. However Kitcher's alternative suggestion, that the goal of science is to be specified in terms of an ideal democratic procedure, does not escape this problem, given Kitcher's own limited skepticism about rational inquiry into certain questions of value.
I present an account of what it is to trust a speaker, and argue that the account can explain the... more I present an account of what it is to trust a speaker, and argue that the account can explain the common intuitions which structure the debate about the transmission view of testimony. According to the suggested account, to trust a speaker is to grant her epistemic authority on the asserted proposition, and hence to see her opinion as issuing a second order, preemptive reason for believing the proposition. The account explains the intuitive appeal of the basic principle associated with the transmission view of testimony: the principle according to which, a listener can normally obtain testimonial knowledge that p by believing a speaker who testifies that p only if the speaker knows that p. It also explains a common response to counterexamples to this principle: that these counterexamples do not involve normal cases of testimonial knowledge.
In a recent article, Steel, Buchak and Eyal (SBE) argue that current levels of uncertainty do not... more In a recent article, Steel, Buchak and Eyal (SBE) argue that current levels of uncertainty do not present a good reason to bar controlled human infection (CHI) trials of COVID-19 vaccines from proceeding. We argue that their argumentation for this conclusion is flawed. SBE are mistaken about the effects which different forms of ignorance have on participants’ ability to provide valid informed consent. Decision-makers considering whether to allow such trials, we argue, must ultimately consider the likelihood that consent to participation in such trials under current conditions would be valid, and whether this likelihood is high enough to permit such trials. This is a question that SBE completely ignore. We conclude that there indeed are valid concerns about conducting CHI trials given the current state of knowledge about COVID-19, concerns which SBE fail to address.
Epistemologists of testimony widely agree on the fact that our reliance on other people's te... more Epistemologists of testimony widely agree on the fact that our reliance on other people's testimony is extensive. However, they have not always paid enough attention to the fact that our reliance on testimony is not only extensive, but also varied. That is, there is more than one way in which we can rely on a speaker's testimony to form a belief: Sometimes we treat a person's testimony that p as we treat any other piece of evidence. At other times, we just trust the speaker for the truth of what she says. Arguably, the latter is the normal way of forming a belief on the basis of other people's testimony. And while Paul Faulkner's important book presents an account of how we can obtain knowledge in both these ways, its focus, as its title suggests, is on knowledge obtained through trust. Faulkner is one of a number of epistemologists who have attempted in recent years to explain how we can obtain knowledge by trusting others (Faulkner 2007; Fricker 2006; Hinc...
The standard account of informed consent has recently met serious criticism, focused on the misma... more The standard account of informed consent has recently met serious criticism, focused on the mismatch between its implications and widespread intuitions about the permissibility of conducting research and providing treatment under conditions of partial knowledge. Unlike other critics of the standard account, we suggest an account of the relations between autonomy, ignorance, and valid consent that avoids these implausible implications while maintaining the standard core idea, namely, that the primary purpose of the disclosure requirement of informed consent is to prevent autonomy-undermining ignorance. The problem with the standard account, we argue, is that it fails to distinguish between different forms of ignorance–in particular, error and suspending ignorance–that have very different effects on individuals’ ability to provide valid consent. While error often undermines our ability to provide valid consent, suspending ignorance, we argue, does not. Once the moral weight of this distinction is appreciated, it becomes apparent that valid informed consent requires far less knowledge than suggested by the standard account.
Abstract: The normal way of forming a belief upon the testimony of a speaker, namely, by taking t... more Abstract: The normal way of forming a belief upon the testimony of a speaker, namely, by taking the speaker's word for it, involves granting the speaker epistemic authority on the asserted proposition. While contemporary epistemologists have recognized our extensive reliance ...
We introduce and experiment the Fisherman's Game in which the application of economic theory... more We introduce and experiment the Fisherman's Game in which the application of economic theory leads to four different benchmarks. Non-cooperative sequential rationality predicts one extreme outcome while the core (which coincides with the competitive market equilibrium) predicts ...
Within the contemporary epistemology of testimony, it is widely assumed that testimonial sceptici... more Within the contemporary epistemology of testimony, it is widely assumed that testimonial scepticism can be dismissed without engaging with possible reasons or arguments supporting the view. This assumption of dismissibility both underlies the debate between reductionist and non-reductionist views of testimony and is responsible for the neglect of testimonial scepticism within contemporary epistemology. This paper argues that even given liberal assumptions about what may constitute valid grounds for the dismissal of a sceptical view, the assumption that testimonial scepticism is dismissible should be rejected. For even if familiar sceptical positions and scepticism about testimonial justification can be dismissed on such grounds, scepticism about testimonial knowledge cannot.
Modest pessimism about philosophical progress is the view that while philosophy may sometimes mak... more Modest pessimism about philosophical progress is the view that while philosophy may sometimes make some progress, philosophy has made, and can be expected to make, only very little progress (where the extent of philosophical progress is typically judged against progress in the hard sciences). The paper argues against recent attempts to defend this view on the basis of the pervasiveness of disagreement within philosophy. The argument from disagreement for modest pessimism assumes a teleological conception of progress, according to which the attainment of true answers to the big philosophical questions, or knowledge of them, is the primary goal of philosophy. The paper argues that this assumption involves a misconception of the goal of philosophy: if philosophy has a primary goal, its goal is the understanding of philosophical problems rather than knowledge of answers to philosophical questions. Moreover, it is argued that if the primary goal of philosophy is such understanding, then widespread disagreement within philosophy does not indicate that philosophy makes little progress.
This chapter gives an account of epistemic trust. It argues that trust in general is a matter of ... more This chapter gives an account of epistemic trust. It argues that trust in general is a matter of declining to take precautions against the trustee’s failing to come through, and that this amounts in the epistemic case to declining to rely on evidence for the testified proposition, instead relying solely on the testifier. But if this is so, how can trust play a positive role in securing knowledge? The key, it is argued, lies in recognizing that trust is preemptive: Trusting someone entails believing that she is trustworthy, and this belief preempts other evidence about whether she will come through. In other words, this belief gives the truster himself a good reason to desist from relying on evidence other than the trustee’s word. But if trust is preemptive, how is it compatible with epistemic responsibility, which seems to involve relying on your own evidence? Because, it is claimed, preempting your own evidence in favor of the testifier’s say-so enables your belief to be supported by her evidence – which, we may assume, is superior to your own. Far from forfeiting epistemic responsibility, then, epistemic trust on the preemptive account gives you justificatory access to a swathe of evidence that you would not otherwise have had.
The standard account of informed consent has recently met serious criticism, focused on the misma... more The standard account of informed consent has recently met serious criticism, focused on the mismatch between its implications and widespread intuitions about the permissibility of conducting research and providing treatment under conditions of partial knowledge. Unlike other critics of the standard account, we suggest an account of the relations between autonomy, ignorance, and valid consent that avoids these implausible implications while maintaining the standard core idea, namely, that the primary purpose of the disclosure requirement of informed consent is to prevent autonomy-undermining ignorance. The problem with the standard account, we argue, is that it fails to distinguish between different forms of ignorance–in particular, error and suspending ignorance–that have very different effects on individuals’ ability to provide valid consent. While error often undermines our ability to provide valid consent, suspending ignorance, we argue, does not. Once the moral weight of this distinction is appreciated, it becomes apparent that valid informed consent requires far less knowledge than suggested by the standard account.
Epistemologists of testimony widely agree on the fact that our reliance on other people's te... more Epistemologists of testimony widely agree on the fact that our reliance on other people's testimony is extensive. However, they have not always paid enough attention to the fact that our reliance on testimony is not only extensive, but also varied. That is, there is more than one way in which we can rely on a speaker's testimony to form a belief: Sometimes we treat a person's testimony that p as we treat any other piece of evidence. At other times, we just trust the speaker for the truth of what she says. Arguably, the latter is the normal way of forming a belief on the basis of other people's testimony. And while Paul Faulkner's important book presents an account of how we can obtain knowledge in both these ways its focus, as its title suggests, is on knowledge obtained through trust. Faulkner is one of a number of epistemologists who have attempted in recent years to explain how we can obtain knowledge by trusting others (Faulkner 2007;
On many science-related policy questions, the public is unable to make informed decisions, becaus... more On many science-related policy questions, the public is unable to make informed decisions, because of its inability to make use of knowledge obtained by scientists. Philip Kitcher and James Fishkin have both suggested therefore that on certain science-related issues, public policy should not be decided on by actual democratic vote, but should instead conform to the public’s counterfactual informed democratic decision (CIDD). Indeed, this suggestion underlies Kitcher’s specification of an ideal of a well-ordered science. This article argues that this suggestion misconstrues the normative significance of CIDDs. At most, CIDDs might have epistemic significance, but no authority or legitimizing force.
W.V.Quine and Philip Kitcher have both developed naturalistic approaches to the philosophy of sci... more W.V.Quine and Philip Kitcher have both developed naturalistic approaches to the philosophy of science which are partially based on a skeptical view about the possibility of rational inquiry into certain questions of value. Nonetheless, both Quine and Kitcher do not wish to give up on the normative dimension of the philosophy of science. I argue that Kitcher's recent argument against the specification of the goal of science in terms of truth raises a problem for Quine's account of the normative dimensions of the discipline. However Kitcher's alternative suggestion, that the goal of science is to be specified in terms of an ideal democratic procedure, does not escape this problem, given Kitcher's own limited skepticism about rational inquiry into certain questions of value.
I present an account of what it is to trust a speaker, and argue that the account can explain the... more I present an account of what it is to trust a speaker, and argue that the account can explain the common intuitions which structure the debate about the transmission view of testimony. According to the suggested account, to trust a speaker is to grant her epistemic authority on the asserted proposition, and hence to see her opinion as issuing a second order, preemptive reason for believing the proposition. The account explains the intuitive appeal of the basic principle associated with the transmission view of testimony: the principle according to which, a listener can normally obtain testimonial knowledge that p by believing a speaker who testifies that p only if the speaker knows that p. It also explains a common response to counterexamples to this principle: that these counterexamples do not involve normal cases of testimonial knowledge.
In a recent article, Steel, Buchak and Eyal (SBE) argue that current levels of uncertainty do not... more In a recent article, Steel, Buchak and Eyal (SBE) argue that current levels of uncertainty do not present a good reason to bar controlled human infection (CHI) trials of COVID-19 vaccines from proceeding. We argue that their argumentation for this conclusion is flawed. SBE are mistaken about the effects which different forms of ignorance have on participants’ ability to provide valid informed consent. Decision-makers considering whether to allow such trials, we argue, must ultimately consider the likelihood that consent to participation in such trials under current conditions would be valid, and whether this likelihood is high enough to permit such trials. This is a question that SBE completely ignore. We conclude that there indeed are valid concerns about conducting CHI trials given the current state of knowledge about COVID-19, concerns which SBE fail to address.
Epistemologists of testimony widely agree on the fact that our reliance on other people's te... more Epistemologists of testimony widely agree on the fact that our reliance on other people's testimony is extensive. However, they have not always paid enough attention to the fact that our reliance on testimony is not only extensive, but also varied. That is, there is more than one way in which we can rely on a speaker's testimony to form a belief: Sometimes we treat a person's testimony that p as we treat any other piece of evidence. At other times, we just trust the speaker for the truth of what she says. Arguably, the latter is the normal way of forming a belief on the basis of other people's testimony. And while Paul Faulkner's important book presents an account of how we can obtain knowledge in both these ways, its focus, as its title suggests, is on knowledge obtained through trust. Faulkner is one of a number of epistemologists who have attempted in recent years to explain how we can obtain knowledge by trusting others (Faulkner 2007; Fricker 2006; Hinc...
The standard account of informed consent has recently met serious criticism, focused on the misma... more The standard account of informed consent has recently met serious criticism, focused on the mismatch between its implications and widespread intuitions about the permissibility of conducting research and providing treatment under conditions of partial knowledge. Unlike other critics of the standard account, we suggest an account of the relations between autonomy, ignorance, and valid consent that avoids these implausible implications while maintaining the standard core idea, namely, that the primary purpose of the disclosure requirement of informed consent is to prevent autonomy-undermining ignorance. The problem with the standard account, we argue, is that it fails to distinguish between different forms of ignorance–in particular, error and suspending ignorance–that have very different effects on individuals’ ability to provide valid consent. While error often undermines our ability to provide valid consent, suspending ignorance, we argue, does not. Once the moral weight of this distinction is appreciated, it becomes apparent that valid informed consent requires far less knowledge than suggested by the standard account.
Abstract: The normal way of forming a belief upon the testimony of a speaker, namely, by taking t... more Abstract: The normal way of forming a belief upon the testimony of a speaker, namely, by taking the speaker's word for it, involves granting the speaker epistemic authority on the asserted proposition. While contemporary epistemologists have recognized our extensive reliance ...
We introduce and experiment the Fisherman's Game in which the application of economic theory... more We introduce and experiment the Fisherman's Game in which the application of economic theory leads to four different benchmarks. Non-cooperative sequential rationality predicts one extreme outcome while the core (which coincides with the competitive market equilibrium) predicts ...
Modest pessimism about philosophical progress is the view that while philosophy may sometimes mak... more Modest pessimism about philosophical progress is the view that while philosophy may sometimes make some progress, philosophy has made, and can be expected to make, only very little progress (where the extent of philosophical progress is typically judged against progress in the hard sciences). The paper argues against recent attempts to defend this view on the basis of the pervasiveness of disagreement within philosophy. The argument from disagreement for modest pessimism assumes a teleological conception of progress, according to which the attainment of true answers to the big philosophical questions, or knowledge of them, is the primary goal of philosophy. The paper argues that this assumption involves a misconception of the goal of philosophy: if philosophy has a primary goal, its goal is the understanding of philosophical problems rather than knowledge of answers to philosophical questions. Moreover, it is argued that if the primary goal of philosophy is such understanding, then widespread disagreement within philosophy does not indicate that philosophy makes little progress.
The paper compares two views about the proper reaction to differences in opinion between layperso... more The paper compares two views about the proper reaction to differences in opinion between laypersons and experts: the experts-as-evidence view (Elga 2007), according to which, an expert's judgment provides laypersons with very weighty reason to believe as the expert does; and the experts-as-authority view (Zagzebski 2012, Keren 2007, 2014), according to which an expert's judgment provides laypersons with preemptive reasons to believe as the expert does. I show that the two views have different implication for how we ought to interact with experts; for how experts ought to interact with us; and regarding the proper characterization of the kind of failure exhibited when we fail to respond to experts as we should. I argue that the expert-as-authority view fairs better, in the sense that its implications regarding all of these better fit our pre-theoretic intuitions. I then explore possible ways of defending the expert-as-authority view and the pre-theoretic intuitions which support it, arguing that while Zagzebski's recent attempt to defend the view fails, an alternative account can succeed in this task.
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Papers by Arnon Keren
between autonomy, ignorance, and valid consent that avoids these implausible implications while maintaining the standard core idea, namely, that the primary purpose of the disclosure requirement of informed consent is to prevent autonomy-undermining ignorance. The
problem with the standard account, we argue, is that it fails to distinguish between different forms of ignorance–in particular, error and suspending ignorance–that have very different effects on individuals’ ability to provide valid consent. While error often undermines our ability to provide valid consent, suspending ignorance, we argue, does not. Once the moral
weight of this distinction is appreciated, it becomes apparent that valid informed consent requires far less knowledge than suggested by the standard account.
between autonomy, ignorance, and valid consent that avoids these implausible implications while maintaining the standard core idea, namely, that the primary purpose of the disclosure requirement of informed consent is to prevent autonomy-undermining ignorance. The
problem with the standard account, we argue, is that it fails to distinguish between different forms of ignorance–in particular, error and suspending ignorance–that have very different effects on individuals’ ability to provide valid consent. While error often undermines our ability to provide valid consent, suspending ignorance, we argue, does not. Once the moral
weight of this distinction is appreciated, it becomes apparent that valid informed consent requires far less knowledge than suggested by the standard account.