Political Epistemology

GOV 2058 Subject & Catalog Number

Description

What is the relationship between politics and knowledge? Journalism, post-truth, echo chambers, misinformation, dogmatism, confirmation bias, mass ignorance, ideologies, persuasion, demagoguery, disagreement, polarization, epistemic injustice, skepticism, lying, intolerance, trust, testimony, the status of science in guiding public policy, and just plain error: these political phenomena all raise foundational epistemic issues about the nature, sources, and limits of political knowledge; and about the political bases of knowledge itself. This seminar will explore a variety of questions such as: What kind of knowledge must political actors obtain in order to take effective action? What are the sources of such knowledge? Are they reliable? What are the limits to attaining political knowledge? What must be presupposed about the nature and structure of the sociopolitical world, human nature, and human cognition in order to think that adequate and representative political knowledge is possible? Is a public, political sphere a necessary condition for, or a hindrance to, the formation of scientific knowledge? Readings will be drawn from the social sciences and philosophy.