1 / 12

The Social Construction of Knowledge

The Social Construction of Knowledge. Kareem Khalifa Department of Philosophy Middlebury College. Overview. Equal Validity Classical and Constructivist Conceptions of Knowledge.

abner
Download Presentation

The Social Construction of Knowledge

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. The Social Construction of Knowledge Kareem Khalifa Department of Philosophy Middlebury College

  2. Overview • Equal Validity • Classical and Constructivist Conceptions of Knowledge

  3. Equal Validity: “There are many radically different, yet ‘equally valid’ ways of knowing the world, with science being just one of them” (2)

  4. Knowledge • A thinker S knows that p if and only if: • S believes that p • S is justified in believing that p • p is true (It’s a fact that p).

  5. Classical/Objectivist The world which we seek to know and understand is largely independent of us and our beliefs about it. Constructivist The world which we seek to know and understand is dependent upon our social contexts, interests, and needs. Boghossian (2006: 22) on Constructivism about Facts

  6. Example Objectivism Constructivism Some cats have fur.

  7. Classical/Objectivist Facts of the form—information E justifies belief B—are society-independent. Constructivist Facts of the form—information E justifies belief B—depend on social context, esp. contingent needs and interests. Boghossian (22) on Constructivism about Justification

  8. What is justification? (Boghossian 2006: 14) Justification: Reasons for believing or acting Epistemic Reason (Evidence): “consideration or observation that increases the likelihood or truth of the belief” Pragmatic Reason (Interest/Need): “considerations offered don’t speak to the belief’s truth; only to the … advantages of having it” Constructivism

  9. Classical/Objectivist Under the appropriate circumstances, our exposure to the evidence alone is capable of explaining why we believe what we believe. Constructivist It is never possible to explain why we believe what we believe solely on the basis of our exposure to the relevant evidence; our contingent needs and interests must also be invoked. Boghossian (2006: 22) on Constructivism about Rational Explanation

  10. Constructivism Objectivism More on Rational Explanation(Boghossian 2006: 14) Justification: Reasons for believing or acting Epistemic Reason (Evidence): “consideration or observation that increases the likelihood or truth of the belief” Pragmatic Reason (Interest/Need): “considerations offered don’t speak to the belief’s truth; only to the … advantages of having it” X

  11. Recap • Constructivism (relativism) about knowledge is motivated by the idea that different perspectives are equally valid. • When we refine this idea, we see that it boils down to three different issues: • Are there facts that exist independently of our social contexts? • Are standards of evidence/justification/rationality independent of society? • Is evidence alone ever sufficient to explain why we hold certain beliefs?

More Related