| Unit name | Social Epistemology of the Internet |
|---|---|
| Unit code | PHIL30133 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | H/6 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Dr. Karim Thebault |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
N/A |
| Co-requisites |
N/A |
| School/department | Department of Philosophy |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
When should you believe what you read on Facebook? Which newspapers can you trust? Is Twitter undermining constructive discourse? How can we deal with the so-called problem of ‘fake news’? Is reddit fuelling racist ignorance? These questions are taking up a good deal of space in public discourse and have an important epistemic dimension. They concern who to believe, how to design our epistemic institutions, and how to ameliorate ignorance.
This unit will explore these questions about the epistemology of the internet using tools from social epistemology, ethics, the philosophy of language, and critical race theory. We will consider the ways in which the internet might be epistemically beneficial (allowing us access to more knowledge, and facilitating the collective production of knowledge), whether internet sites lead to distinctive epistemic problems (such as white ignorance, trolling, and echo chambers), and assess how to maximise the virtues of the internet and ameliorate its problems.
On successful completion of the unit students will be able to:
(1) demonstrate detailed knowledge and in-depth understanding of the philosophical issues in social epistemology and applied epistemology,
(2) demonstrate detailed knowledge and in-depth understanding of the central literature in philosophy, communications theory, and critical race theory, concerning the epistemic virtues and vices of the internet,
(3) demonstrate detailed knowledge and in-depth understanding of how to apply work from epistemology to contemporary epistemic problems,
(4) work together collaboratively with others to analyse philosophical ideas and arguments, using the key tools of analytic philosophy, and to present these collaboratively as a group, in a form accessible to the general public, in an oral presentation.
22 x 1-hour lectures and 11 x 1-hour seminars
All assessment is summative:
Group presentation (designed to test ILO 1-4) -- 20%
1000 word report summarising contributions to group presentation (designed to test ILOs 1-3) -- 20%
2000 word essay (designed to test ILO 1-3) -- 40%
Weekly journal entries of no more than 200 words each (designed to test ILO 1-3) -- 20%
Coady, David & Chase, James (eds.) (2018). The Routledge Handbook of Applied Epistemology. Routledge.
Coady, David (2012). What to Believe Now: Applying Epistemology to Contemporary Issues. Wiley-Blackwell.
Goldman, Alvin I. (1999). Knowledge in a Social World . Oxford University Press.
Noble, Safiya Umoja (2018) Algorithms of Oppression New York Press.
O’Connor, Cailin, and Weatherall, James Own (2019) The Misinformation Age , Yale University Press.
