Arnon Keren * Epistemic Authority , Testimony and the Transmission of Knowledge

On the alleged perversity of the evidential view of testimony

1. My wife tells me that it’s raining, and as a result, I now have a reason to believe that it’s raining. But what kind of reason for belief does her testimony provide me with? According to the evidential view of testimony (EVT), what my wife’s testimony provides me with is evidence: evidence indicating that she believes that it’s raining, which then indicates that it is indeed raining. Until r...

Knowledge, Moral Claims and the Exercise of Power in Global Health

A number of individuals and organizations have considerable influence over the selection of global health priorities and strategies. For some that influence derives from control over financial resources. For others it comes from expertise and claims to moral authority—what can be termed, respectively, epistemic and normative power. In contrast to financial power, we commonly take for granted th...

Expert Opinion and Second-Hand Knowledge

Recent work on testimony and the norms of assertion considers cases of expert testimony. Thinking about expert testimony clarifies which epistemic goods figure in the expectations placed on experts for their knowledge. Examining the distinctive conditions of expert testimony and the assumptions hearers bring to such conversational contexts can provide broader lessons about how knowledge is repr...

Says Who ? : Epistemic Authority Effects in Social Judgment ©

Epistemic Virtue from the Viewpoints of Mulla Sadra and Zagzebski

This paper compares epistemic virtue from the viewpoints of Zagzebski and Mulla Sadra, aiming to determine the extent to which their viewpoints on epistemic virtue are similar. Zagzebski, the contemporary philosopher, considers epistemic virtue as the basis on which knowledge is interpreted. She sees epistemic virtue as a requirement for achieving knowledge. Mulla Sadra, the founder of Transcen...