The Oxford Handbook of Social Epistemology

How do we learn from one another on the internet? How can we defend ourselves from propaganda and seek the truth? How do our race, gender, and other aspects of our identity imbue how we learn and know things? Social epistemology explores timely and urgent questions such as these, which is why the field has seen an explosion of interest in recent years. Having originated as a subfield, social epistemology now permeates the agenda of mainstream epistemology, even though it challenges epistemology's traditional focus on the individual. The Oxford Handbook of Social Epistemology offers a collection of cutting-edge essays on many of the most important issues in this rapidly growing area of philosophy. It takes stock of recent developments in the field and reassesses topics that have been thought to fit comfortably within a more traditional approach to epistemology--including our capacities to know our own minds, to reason, and to remember--by examining the ways in which they might be significantly impacted by one's social environment. Several chapters interrogate the boundaries of what social epistemology is by exploring its application to significant issues outside of philosophy--such as psychology, sociology, and political theory--as well as the ways it intersects with ethics, the philosophies of language and mind, political philosophy, feminist philosophy, and critical philosophy of race. Divided into seven sections, this handbook provides a comprehensive coverage of work in this exciting and fertile area of philosophy as it highlights the relevance and importance of social factors to some of the most pressing epistemological questions facing us as agents in the world.