Applied Epistemology (Engaging Philosophy)

Product Information

Greco, J. (2014). Episteme: knowledge and understanding. In K. Timpe and C. E. Boyd (Eds.), Virtues and their vices (pp. 285–301). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Social epistemology accounts for the social nature of knowledge and justification. The quality and extent of an individual’s knowledge depends heavily on the people that individual deems trustworthy. The same is the case for group or public knowledge (knowledge generally accepted as true by a collective). Individuals and perspectives granted expert status have more influence on what is accepted, but this means that many individuals and perspectives will be ignored. Furthermore, it is often types or groups of people who are excluded, which becomes problematic if the perspectives of those groups are valuable to the task of knowledge creation. Standpoint epistemology takes this worry seriously. Standpoint epistemology studies the relationship between an individual’s social status and that individual’s epistemic position. Of particular importance to the theory is the notion that the relative power of individuals and groups influences who we consider to be reliable sources, causing us to ignore the perspectives of less powerful groups. Furthermore, standpoint theory argues that the exclusion of entire groups harms the entire enterprise of gaining knowledge. Method. A hermeneutic literature review was conducted on epistemic concepts in information studies and philosophy. Relevant research was retrieved and reviewed iteratively as the research area was refined. Mladenović, Bojana (2017). Kuhn's Legacy: Epistemology, Metaphilosophy, and Pragmatism. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-52074-4. Elgin, C.Z. (2017). Exemplification in understanding. In S.R. Grimm, C. Baumberger, and S. Ammon (Eds.), Explaining understanding: New perspectives from epistemology and philosophy of science (pp. 76–91). New York, NY: Routledge.

Baumberger, C., Beisbart, C., and Brun, G. (2017). What is understanding? an overview of recent debates in epistemology and philosophy of science. In S.R. Grimm, C. Baumberger, and S. Ammon (Eds.), Explaining understanding: new perspectives from epistemology and philosophy of science (pp. 1–34). New York, NY: Routledge. Floridi intends for his account of meaning to overcome these limitations through its basis in information, rather than language. Floridi views meaning as coordinating action toward goals. In this sense, the meaning of something is the way it affords and constrains actions, and it is therefore inextricable from its context. This seems compatible with Gibson's ( 1979/1986) theory of affordances and philosopher Mark Johnson's ( 2007) definition of meaning drawn from cognitive neuroscience (e.g., the work of Antonio Damasio) and the philosophical tradition of pragmatism (e.g., John Dewey). Notably, Johnson's account specifically allows for meaning to manifest as a difference in human experience (not necessarily outwardly observable action); as described by Johnson, meaning is the way in which patterns of neural activity and their relations ' evoke feeling-thinking responses in us' Johnson ( 2007, p. 243). In this sense, meaning is also clearly implicit in Tkach's ( 2017) definition of information described above. Floridi's account of meaning also seems compatible with other accounts developed within information studies, such as that of Neuman ( 2006), who defines meaning as a system's response to a signal, and Thornley and Gibb ( 2009), who emphasize the processual and contextual contingency of meaning. Knowledge

What Is Semantic Scholar?

Applied epistemology forms part of the concept of " applied philosophy" as theorists begin to distinguish it from " applied ethics". [5] It is argued that "applied philosophy" is a broader field, and that it has parts that are not subdisciplines of applied ethics. [5] The emergence of "applied philosophy" gained traction after it was proposed that philosophy can be applied to contemporary issues. [6] Understanding emphasizes situated, conscious agency, thus avoiding the conduit metaphor and foregrounding lived experience, another research frontier in information studies ( Bruce, Davis, Hughes, Partridge and Stoodley, 2014). Fidel, R.E. (2012). Human information interaction: an ecological approach to information behavior. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Applied epistemology refers to the study that determines whether the systems of investigation that seek the truth lead to true beliefs about the world. [1] A specific conceptualization cites that it attempts to reveal whether these systems contribute to epistemic aims. [2] It is applied in practices outside of philosophy like science and mathematics. [1] Budd, J.M. (2011). Meaning, truth, and information: prolegomena to a theory. Journal of Documentation, 67(1), 56–74. Gibson, J.J. (1986). The ecological approach to perception. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. (Original work published 1979) Another view is a commitment view. Group belief does not require that all members believe; rather, members of the group are jointly committed to a belief as a body merely by virtue of being members of that group (Goldman and O’Connor 2019). Group commitment to a belief creates a normative constraint on members of a group to emulate the belief. Commitment views may work for any group formed around allegiance to specific ideas. Take religious groups, for example, which coalesce around beliefs pertaining to God and religious dogma. Unsurprisingly, wisdom has long been a topic of interest to philosophers ( Ryan, 2014). As reviewed by Sharon Ryan ( 2014), philosophical accounts have ranged in seeing wisdom as epistemic humility (i.e., a person is wise only if they believe they are not), epistemic accuracy (i.e., a person is wise if their beliefs are justified), as a species of knowledge (i.e., a person is wise if they know many things, particularly how to live well), and as a hybrid of these. One recent hybrid approach defines wisdom as a kind of 'deep rationality': a person is wise if they know a lot of valuable things, including about how to live rationally, if they are committed to living rationally, if they have few unjustified beliefs, and if they are sensitive to their limitations ( Ryan, 2012). Understanding and applied epistemology in information studiesThe Wikimedia Foundation set the goal of increasing women Wikipedians to 25% by 2015 (Cohen 2011). Although this initiative has failed, many other projects aim to improve Wikipedia’s gender and multicultural diversity (“ AfroCROWD:About”; “ Wikipedia:WikiProject Countering systemic bias”; “ Wikipedia:WikiProject Women in Red”). Applied epistemology can be useful in assessing the epistemic merits of these proposed solutions. To illustrate, I show how one solution falls afoul of “the problem of speaking for others” (Alcoff 1991). As mentioned above, it has been assumed that the main purpose of information studies is to help people acquire knowledge ( Egan and Shera, 1952; Fallis, 2006). As such, knowledge has been a much-discussed epistemic aim in information studies. Furner ( 2010) contends that information studies has no standard conception of knowledge, which is supported by Rowley's ( 2007) survey of introductory textbooks. Synthesizing the literature, Furner ( 2010) identifies two rival views: knowledge as true information (i.e., objective knowledge), and knowledge as individually internalized information (i.e., personal knowledge). Fallis, D., and Whitcomb, D. (2009). Epistemic values and information management. The Information Society, 25(3), 175–189. Day, R.E. (2000). The 'conduit metaphor' and the nature and politics of information science. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 51(9), 805–811. Bawden, D., and Robinson, L. (2016a). 'A different kind of knowing': speculations on understanding in light of the philosophy of information. Paper presented at Conceptions of Library and Information Science 9, Uppsala, Sweden. Retrieved from http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/14994 (Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/6rKuDcw8M)

Elgin, C.Z. (2002). Art in the advancement of understanding. American Philosophical Quarterly, 39(1), 1–12. More recently, ontic understanding has become a compelling subject in epistemology ( Baumberger et al., 2017), with some epistemologists arguing that understanding is the rightful object of epistemology, rather than knowledge ( Greco, 2014; Grimm, 2012; Kvanvig, 2003, 2005). This is because ontic understanding is seen as epistemically more valuable than knowledge and because the traditional factors defining knowledge (truth, justification and belief) are less problematic when considered as factors defining ontic understanding ( Baumberger et al., 2017). However, the precise nature of ontic understanding is hotly debated among epistemologists (just as is, for that matter, knowledge), as reviewed by Baumberger et al. ( 2017). What is information studies for? Presumably, the products and processes that result from information research are intended for some purpose. Information involves intellectual activity, and so it would seem that information products and processes contribute to some epistemic aims (i.e., goals related to knowing), among other possible aims. These aims are generally left implicit; explicating them, however, can clarify the contribution of a given study, product or service. It seems that information studies has long assumed knowledge as its default epistemic aim; understanding has emerged as an intriguing alternative in recent years, necessitating reconsideration of epistemic frameworks.Wikipedia articles cover notable topics—those that have gained sufficiently significant attention by the world at large and over a period of time, and are not outside the scope of Wikipedia. We consider evidence from reliable independent sources to gauge this attention.“ Wikipedia:Notability” the fecundity of a practice is its ability to lead to large numbers of true beliefs for many practitioners; Within information studies, seemingly the only study operationalizing applied epistemology comes from Fallis and Whitcomb ( 2009), who offer a concrete method for applying epistemology to information studies practice in the context of decision making. They describe how epistemic values (e.g., error avoidance, cost minimization, viewpoint diversity, timeliness) can be linked and weighted to guide decisions in information management. Fallis and Whitcomb argue that, for these hierarchies to be improved, information scientists need more detailed analyses of epistemic values and aims. And though epistemology is generally defined as the study of knowledge, they recognize that other epistemic aims may be possible beyond merely knowledge. (A careful reader will note that Egan and Shera's original 1952 formulation of social epistemology references, for instance, understanding.) Fallis and Whitcomb also suggest that applied epistemology could be implemented in information studies beyond decision analysis. Battersby, M.E. (1989). Critical thinking as applied epistemology: Relocating critical thinking in the philosophical landscape. Informal Logic, 11(2), 91–100. May 19, 2023 OpenStax. Textbook content produced by OpenStax is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License . The OpenStax name, OpenStax logo, OpenStax book covers, OpenStax CNX name, and OpenStax CNX logo

This points to an opportunity to clarify the unity of these conceptualizations of understanding in concrete studies of how people build ontic understanding through engaging with documents, something first called for in information studies by Bawden ( 2012). This research may also find points of convergence or synthesis among other epistemic frameworks in information studies, such as Popper's ( 1972/1979) theory of the three worlds of knowledge—World 1 of material reality, World 2 of subjective experience and World 3 of recorded information. According to Brookes ( 1980), information studies focuses on the interaction between Worlds 2 and 3. And indeed, Popper ( 1979) describes this interface as World 2 grasping for an understanding of World 3. As Popper writes, ' the activity of understanding consists, essentially, in operating with third-world objects' ( 1979, p. 164). In their relations with one another, Wikipedians often endorse a powerful form of hopeful trust (de Laat 2010). First, members of the Wikipedia community make themselves vulnerable – they put themselves in each other’s hands. Wikipedia maintains an openness that makes it vulnerable to those with harmful motives. In the face of this threat, Wikipedians could adopt a default attitude of distrust to new members, forcing them to get permission to edit after successfully completing screening procedures. But Wikipedians instead adopt an attitude of qualified trust toward newcomers. One reason Wikipedians often give for this approach is that it inspires people to do better. As founder Jimmy Wales puts it,

Acknowledgements

Case, D.O., and Given, L.G. (2016). Looking for information: a survey of research on information seeking, needs and behavior (4th ed.). Bingley, UK: Emerald. The purpose of devising this framework was to clarify the relationship of understanding (as a relatively new concept) to other epistemological concepts in information science. This was necessary as preparatory work for future studies in 'understanding-seeking' information behaviour, which has been suggested by Bawden and Robinson ( 2016a, 2016b) and discerned empirically by, for example, Cowan ( 2004), in a study of the information behaviour of visual artists.