Research

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1/6

Knowledge

In a word full of fake news, misinformation, conspiracy theories and alternative histories, it has become difficult to figure out what is true: it has become difficult to know. But how exactly is knowledge achieved, shared and transmitted – and what undermines it? To understand the knowledge crisis, we have to address these questions. And this means we may need to radically rethink many of our common assumptions about knowledge.

Is knowledge ‘extended’ beyond the human subject?

What is disagreement and how can it be managed?

How can education produce epistemic competence?

2/6

Mind

To understand the knowledge crisis we also need to understand the human mind itself. How is knowledge embodied both inside and outside the mind? How should we understand the unconscious mind and its contribution to knowledge? What are the connections between the mind, knowledge and action? Can there be artificial minds?

What accounts of mental structure make the best sense of resistance to knowledge?

Can knowledge production be artificially constructed?

To what extent are we really in control in our attempts to find knowledge?

The Mind group is comprised of

3/6

Science

Many people are deeply suspicious of knowledge generated by the sciences. And yet, many of these same people agree that scientific knowledge is important. What explains this tension? Have scientific methodologies themselves played a role in creating mistrust in science? If so, how should science and the general public properly engage with each other?

What role do models play in scientific knowledge?

Can the philosophy of science make sense of resistance and hostility to knowledge?

How should scientific knowledge be communicated and taught?

The Science group is comprised of

4/6

Ethics

The crisis of knowledge also has an ethical dimension. In a world of different ethical viewpoints, how can we know what is good or bad? How should ethics constrain the knowledge we produce and consume? What are the ethical limits to the things we should investigate?

Can moral objectivity be defended in a world of apparently irreconcilable disagreement?

How might practical knowledge be undermined, and how can it be restored?

What are the ethical dimensions of scientific knowledge construction?

The Ethics group is comprised of

Sonja Rinofner-Kreidl

5/6

Society

Knowledge is a social phenomenon. Our societies need knowledge, but they also create and sustain it. What are the building blocks of society? What are the most important social categories in terms of which we conceptualise ourselves, and the world around us?

How should we understand what we share as social beings, our shared humanity?

How can we develop non-discriminatory social knowledge frameworks?

How should we understand the ontology of society, its fundamental structure?

The Society group is comprised of

6/6

Language

Knowledge is factive: you cannot know something that is false. You can only know what is true. This means we cannot understand knowledge without understanding truth. But the idea of truth is under attack, from many sources, inside and outside the universities. The crisis of knowledge is therefore also a crisis of truth, and the language used to express truths. How should philosophy approach this?

What is the source of scepticism about truth?

How are truths grounded in reality?

What sense can be made of relativism about truth?

The Language group is comprised of