Description
What can we know and what should we believe about today's world? What to Believe Now: Applying Epistemology to Contemporary Issues applies the concerns and techniques of epistemology to a wide variety of contemporary issues. Questions about what we can know-and what we should believe-are first addressed through an explicit consideration of the practicalities of working these issues out at the dawn of the twenty-first century.
Coady calls for an 'applied turn' in epistemology, a process he likens to the applied turn that transformed the study of ethics in the early 1970s. Subjects dealt with include:
- Experts-how can we recognize them? And when should we trust them?
- Rumors-should they ever be believed? And can they, in fact, be a source of knowledge?
- Conspiracy theories-when, if ever, should they be believed, and can they be known to be true?
- The blogosphere-how does it compare with traditional media as a source of knowledge and justified belief?
Timely, thought provoking, and controversial, What to Believe Now offers a wealth of insights into a branch of philosophy of growing importance-and increasing relevance-in the twenty-first century.
Table of Contents
Preface ix
1 Introduction 1
2 Experts and the Laity 27
3 Epistemic Democracy 59
4 Rumors and Rumor-Mongers 86
5 Conspiracy Theories and Conspiracy Theorists 110
6 The Blogosphere and the Conventional Media 138
7 Conclusion 169
Postscript: Government Surveillance and Privacy 175
References 188
Index 197
