Cognitive Science Program

Chris Vials, Professor and Director of American Studies, will review its key elements of Project 2025 and devote special attention to how it rationalizes authoritarianism and what that would mean for our country and our rights.

A brown bag is a one hour, generally (though not exclusively) intra-departmental colloquium, starting with a twenty to twenty five minute talk by a faculty member or graduate student, filled from there to the end with lively questions and answers.

A brown bag is a one hour, generally (though not exclusively) intra-departmental colloquium, starting with a twenty to twenty five minute talk by a faculty member or graduate student, filled from there to the end with lively questions and answers.

Title: Inquiry and Higher-Order Evidence

Abstract:                                                                                                                                                                                    What is the epistemic significance of higher-order evidence? Recently, philosophers have defended zetetic approaches to higher-order evidence, which appeal to factors related to inquiry and deliberation. According to these views, in response to higher-order evidence – for example, when you find out that an epistemic peer or superior disagrees with you concerning the answer to a question – you should open inquiry and deliberate upon the question further. While it can often be productive to deliberate or to double-check one’s reasoning when confronted with higher-order evidence, I argue that zetetic accounts are bound to be incomplete. They are unable to explain a range of important cases. Reflecting on these cases helps to make vivid a broader lesson concerning the relationship between inquiry and epistemic normativity. Epistemology never requires us to perform specific actions, such as evidence gathering, deliberation, or double-checking, even when these acts are required to settle the answers to our questions.