Epistemic Peers, Disagreement, and Biased Judgment: Why A Good Judge of Peerhood is Hard to Find

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Description
ABSTRACT The responses to idealized cases of peer disagreement given in the peer disagreement literature are presented as though those responses ought to be applied to real-world cases of disagreement. In order to apply the advice given in the literature

ABSTRACT The responses to idealized cases of peer disagreement given in the peer disagreement literature are presented as though those responses ought to be applied to real-world cases of disagreement. In order to apply the advice given in the literature to actual disagreement situations, one must first confidently identify one’s epistemic peers. Previous work in the literature, especially by Nathan King, suggests that one cannot confidently identify one’s epistemic peers in real-world cases of disagreement because it is unlikely that any two people will ever meet the idealized conditions of peerhood in real-world disagreements. I argue that due to the unconscious judgment-altering effects of certain cognitive biases, even if one could consciously meet the idealized conditions for epistemic peerhood as they are outlined in the peer disagreement literature, one should still not be confident that one has correctly identified others as one’s epistemic peers. I give examples of how cognitive biases can affect one’s judgments of one’s own epistemic abilities and the epistemic abilities of others, and I conclude that the peer disagreement literature’s prescriptions may not be suitable for, and are perhaps deleterious to, rational real-world disagreement resolution.
Date Created
2023
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The Perception of Time

Description

Discussions of the nature of time can be enriched using insight from the field of biology. In the evolution of our species, biological timekeeping mechanisms have been honed to a fine point and can accurately adhere to a 24-hour cycle.

Discussions of the nature of time can be enriched using insight from the field of biology. In the evolution of our species, biological timekeeping mechanisms have been honed to a fine point and can accurately adhere to a 24-hour cycle. When considering that these timekeeping mechanisms would only have evolved if they were reasonably accurate, it must be the case that our timekeeping systems are measuring a genuine feature of reality. This thesis explores this idea by discussing the veridicality of the circadian clock and contrasting it with the physiological origin of feelings of duration. As it turns out, duration can not be accounted for by the circadian clock, implying that the felt ‘flow’ of time is a cognitive illusion rather than a feature of objective reality. Given this, our knowledge of biology reconciles best with the Static View (B-theory) of time.

Date Created
2023-05
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