Title: Towards Zetetic Social Epistemology

Abstract: Much of the work in social epistemology is based on the assumption that inquisitive or zetetic norms (guiding one’s inquiry) are reducible to epistemic ones (guiding one’s beliefs). Sometimes zetetic norms are even considered irrelevant for the study of epistemic norms. This neglect of the dimension of inquiry sharply contrasts with recent calls for the ‘zetetic turn’ in epistemology, highlighting the importance of explicitly studying the relationship between the epistemic and the zetetic. In this paper, we aim to explore the need for the zetetic turn in social epistemology. To this end, we focus on the interplay between epistemic and inquisitive norms in the context of scientific disagreements. Using an agent-based bandit model of peer disagreement, we show that no epistemic norm of reacting to disagreement benefits the community in all contexts of inquiry. Our results suggest a ‘dependence thesis’ between epistemic and zetetic norms, according to which the two types of norms are tightly connected and should be studied in bundles when it comes to the epistemic performance of groups. More generally, our findings highlight the need for a zetetic turn in social epistemology.

The talk is based on joint work with Martin Justin (University of Maribor), Christian Straßer (Ruhr University Bochum) and Borut Trpin (University of Maribor).

The seminar will held online on May 14th at 14:30 (Rome time) on the Microsoft Teams platform, here.