Author

Sean Wrubel

Date of Award

2014

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Edidin, Aron

Keywords

Epistemics, Responsibility, Philosophy

Area of Concentration

Philosophy

Abstract

This thesis attempts to develop a social conception of epistemic responsibility. In the thesis I am focused on two senses of epistemic responsibility, the “Care in Inquiry” sense and the “Fit Recipient of Praise and Blame” sense. In the first sense we are concerned with how we can be careful in our inquiry while the second sense is focused on our evaluations of others as epistemically responsible in terms of praise or blame. I begin by outlining previous approaches, which I argue neglect the social features of epistemic responsibility due to their individualistic focus. I then propose a series of examples and concepts intended to capture the social features of epistemic responsibility that are absent from the previous approaches. I conclude with three principles that I believe provide the foundation for a social conception of epistemic responsibility.

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