Political Epistemology

337 Pages·2021·2.385 MB·English

by  Elizabeth Edenberg and Michael Hannon

OUP CORRECTED AUTOPAGE PROOFS – FINAL, 15/04/21, SPi
Political Epistemology
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Political Epistemology, edited by Elizabeth Edenberg, and Michael Hannon, Oxford University Press USA - OSO, 2021.
OUP CORRECTED AUTOPAGE PROOFS – FINAL, 15/04/21, SPi
MIND ASSOCIATION OCCASIONAL SERIES
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scholarly activities in connection with the preparation of particular volumes.
Director, Mind Association: Daniel Whiting
Publications Ofcer: Eliot Michaelson
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Political Epistemology, edited by Elizabeth Edenberg, and Michael Hannon, Oxford University Press USA - OSO, 2021.
OUP CORRECTED AUTOPAGE PROOFS – FINAL, 15/04/21, SPi
Political Epistemology
Edited by
ELIZABETH EDENBERG
and
MICHAEL HANNON
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Political Epistemology, edited by Elizabeth Edenberg, and Michael Hannon, Oxford University Press USA - OSO, 2021.
OUP CORRECTED AUTOPAGE PROOFS – FINAL, 15/04/21, SPi
1
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Political Epistemology, edited by Elizabeth Edenberg, and Michael Hannon, Oxford University Press USA - OSO, 2021.
OUP CORRECTED AUTOPAGE PROOFS – FINAL, 15/04/21, SPi
Acknowledgments
Tis volume would not have been possible without generous support from several
funders and people. Firstly, we’d like to thank the Aristotelian Society, the Society for
Applied Philosophy, and the Mind Association for providing the funds to organize
the inaugural Political Epistemology Network event in London 2018, where the idea
for this volume frst took shape. We would also like to thank the British Academy, the
Society for Applied Philosophy, and especially Georgetown University and Ethics
Lab for supporting a workshop on Epistemology, Democracy, and Disagreement in
October 2018. Tis allowed us to invite many contributors of this volume to
Washington D.C. for two days of spirited discussion about the contents of this book.
Tanks to everyone who participated in these events.
We’d also like to thank the Institute of Philosophy at the University of London, and
especially Barry Smith and Richard Somerville, for providing the venue, funding,
and support to run a series of events on political epistemology that shaped this
volume, as well as for providing Elizabeth Edenberg with a visiting fellowship to
make the collaborative work on this project possible. Michael Hannon would also
like to thank Jeroen de Ridder and the Dutch Research Council for supporting his
research as part of the NWO Vidi grant on “Knowledgeable Democracy: A Social-
Epistemological Inquiry” (Project 276- 20- 024).
A number of other people deserve thanks for helping us to develop this project
over the past two years. In particular, we’d like to thank Maggie Little, Robin
McKenna, Scott Sturgeon, Étienne Brown, Boudewijn de Bruin, Kate Elgin, Jonathan
Healey, Syndey Luken, August Gorman, Lukas Chandler, Michael Tschiderer,
Patricia Martin, Roxie France-N uriddin, Daniel Sulmasy, and two anonymous
reviewers. Tanks also to Marie Traore for her fantastic help preparing the index for
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evre this volume and to Baruch College, for providing support for her research assistance.
se We’d also like to thank our editor, Peter Momtchilof, as well as Sarah Sawyer from
r sth the Mind Association, who initially suggested that we include this edited volume as
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.O University Press. We are incredibly grateful to both of them for their encouragement.
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- A Also, we want to apologize to anyone we forgot to mention by name and say thank
SU you for your help. Tis book is the result of many years of thinking about political
sse epistemology, and we are sure that we have learned things from more people than we
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ytisrevin canF innoawlly r,e wmee’dm lbikeer .to thank every contributor to this volume: Kristofer Ahlstrom-
U d Vij, Elizabeth Anderson, Jason Brennan, Quassim Cassam, Tomas Christiano,
rofxO David Estlund, Alexander Guerrero, Jennifer Lackey, Michael Lynch, Fabienne Peter,
.1 Jeroen de Ridder, Regina Rini, Jennifer R. Steele, Robert Talisse, and Briana Toole.
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2 When we frst envisioned our dream team of contributors, we never expected all of
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th you to fnd the time to contribute to this project. Tank you so much for being part
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Political Epistemology, edited by Elizabeth Edenberg, and Michael Hannon, Oxford University Press USA - OSO, 2021.
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Political Epistemology, edited by Elizabeth Edenberg, and Michael Hannon, Oxford University Press USA - OSO, 2021.
OUP CORRECTED AUTOPAGE PROOFS – FINAL, 15/04/21, SPi
Contents
List of Contributors ix
Introduction 1
Elizabeth Edenberg and Michael Hannon
I. TRUTH AND KNOWLEDGE IN POLITICS
1. Epistemic Bubbles and Authoritarian Politics 11
Elizabeth Anderson
2. Weaponized Skepticism: An Analysis of Social Media
Deception as Applied Political Epistemology 31
Regina Rini
3. Bullshit, Post- truth, and Propaganda 49
Quassim Cassam
4. Truth and Uncertainty in Political Justifcation 64
Fabienne Peter
5. What Lies Beneath: Te Epistemic Roots of White Supremacy 76
Briana Toole
II. EPISTEMIC PROBLEMS FOR DEMOCRACY
.d 6. Epistocratic Paternalism 97
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- AS Doxastic and Epistemic Problems 135
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vin Promise of Lottocracy 156
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.1 10. Policy, Ignorance, and the Will of the People: Te Case of
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02 “Good Immigrants” 180
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viii Contents
III. DISAGREEMENT AND POLARIZATION
11. Problems of Polarization 209
Robert B. Talisse
12. Deep Disagreements and Political Polarization 226
Jeroen de Ridder
13. Political Disagreement, Arrogance, and the Pursuit of Truth 244
Michael P. Lynch
14. Te Problem with Disagreement on Social Media:
Moral not Epistemic 259
Elizabeth Edenberg
15. When Should We Disagree about Politics? 280
Jennifer Lackey
16. Disagreement or Badmouthing? Te Role of Expressive
Discourse in Politics 297
Michael Hannon
Index 319
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Political Epistemology, edited by Elizabeth Edenberg, and Michael Hannon, Oxford University Press USA - OSO, 2021.
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List of Contributors
Kristofer Ahlstrom- Vij is Reader in Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of
London, and Research Fellow at the National Institute of Economic and Social
Research, London. He works in social epistemology, both theoretical and applied,
with a particular interest in the value of truth and the ways in which society can be set
up to promote it. At present, he is exploring the role of factual information in political
attitude formation, and how to re-t hink democratic processes and institutions in light
of the problems posed by public ignorance. His publications include Epistemic
Consequentialism (Oxford University Press, 2018), Epistemic Paternalism: A Defense
(Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), and articles in Noûs, Philosophy and Phenomenological
Research, Philosophical Studies, and other journals.
Elizabeth Anderson is Arthur F. Turnau Professor and John Dewey Distinguished
University Professor of Philosophy and Women’s Studies at the University of
Michigan. Her research covers topics in moral and political philosophy and episte-
mology, including: democratic theory, equality in political philosophy and American
law, racial integration, the ethical limits of markets, the history of egalitarianism,
theories of value and rational choice, pragmatism, and feminist epistemology and
philosophy of science. Anderson’s book Te Imperative of Integration (Princeton
University Press, 2013), was winner of the American Philosophical Association’s 2011
Joseph B. Gittler Award for an outstanding scholarly contribution in the feld of the
philosophy of the social sciences. Her most recent book, Private Government: How
Employers Rule Our Lives (and Why We Don’t Talk About It) (Princeton University
Press, 2017) is based on her Tanner Lectures, delivered at Princeton’s Center for
Human Values.
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se Economics, Ethics, and Public Policy at the McDonough School of Business at
r sth Georgetown University. He is the author of thirteen books, including Injustice for All
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.O University Press, 2018).
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rP of Philosophy at UCL, and Reader in Philosophy at Oxford University. He is the
ytisre author of seven books, including Vices of the Mind: From the Intellectual to the Political
vin (Oxford University Press, 2019), Conspiracy Teories (Polity, 2019), and Extremism: A
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.1 Tomas Christiano is Professor of Philosophy and Law at the University of Arizona.
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th cratic theory, distributive justice, and global justice. He is co- editor of Politics,
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x List of Contributors
Democratic Authority and Its Limits (Oxford University Press, 2008), Te Rule of Te
Many: Fundamental Issues in Democratic Teory (Westview Press, 1996), and the
edited volume Philosophy and Democracy: An Anthology (Oxford University Press,
2003). He is currently working on books on economic justice, citizen participation,
and the foundations of equality.
Elizabeth Edenberg is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Baruch College, Te City
University of New York. Prior to joining Baruch College, she was Senior Ethicist and
Assistant Research Professor at Georgetown University’s Ethics Lab where she led
translational ethics projects, collaborating with teams of computer scientists, lawyers,
and social scientists investigating emerging ethical and political challenges posed by
technology. She specializes in political philosophy, political epistemology, and the
ethics of emerging technologies. Her articles have appeared in journals such as Te
Journal of Political Philosophy, Law and Philosophy, New Media & Society, and IEEE:
Security and Privacy.
David Estlund is Lombardo Family Professor of the Humanities and Philosophy at
Brown University. His research interests include liberalism, justice and injustice,
democracy, dissent, and ideal theory. He previously taught at University of California,
Irvine, and has spent fellowship years at Harvard’s Program in Ethics and the
Professions and at Australian National University. He is editor most recently of Te
Oxford Handbook of Political Philosophy (Oxford University Press, 2013) and author
of Democratic Authority: A Philosophical Framework (Princeton University Press,
2008), and Utopophobia: On the Limits (If Any) of Political Philosophy (Princeton
University Press, 2020).
Alexander Guerrero is Henry Rutgers Term Chair and Associate Professor of
Philosophy at Rutgers University. His work in epistemology, political and moral phi-
losophy, and legal philosophy has appeared in journals such as Ethics, Philosophy and
Public Afairs, Public Afairs Quarterly, and Philosophical Studies. One of his main
areas of research is on “lottocracies,” which is the idea that lotteries, not elections,
.d should be used to select political ofcials. He received his PhD from the NYU
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r sth Michael Hannon is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Nottingham
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.O of Knowledge? (Oxford University Press, 2019) and co-e ditor of Te Routledge
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- A Handbook of Political Epistemology. He writes about skepticism, fallibilism, the value
SU of knowledge, expressive political discourse, and the role of empathy in politics. He is
sse currently writing a book for Routledge titled Political Epistemology: An Introduction.
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ytisre Jennifer Lackey is Wayne and Elizabeth Jones Professor of Philosophy at Northwestern
vin University, Director of the Northwestern Prison Education Program, and Editor- in-
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fxO social epistemology, with recent work on the rationality of punishment, credibility
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20 and false confessions, eyewitness testimony and epistemic agency, epistemic repara-
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