Testimonial Liberalism and the balance of epistemic goals, (2024), Philosophical Studies, DOI: 10.1007/s11098-024-02244-1 (open access)
I defend testimonial liberalism—the view that, absent defeaters, one may believe that p on mere say-so—from the well-known 'gullibility' objection. Roughly, the worry is that the view is too permissive; one enjoys an absence of defeaters in all sorts of cases in which one ought not to believe. In response, I argue that the well-known distinction between positive and negative epistemic measures can be leveraged in defence of the liberal. Once we get clear on the idea that, as epistemic agents, we need to strike a good balance between the pursuit of truth and the avoidance of error, we see that: (i) the gullibility objection is defused; and, to that extent, (ii) the liberal view on testimonial justification is stronger than has been appreciated.
"Friendly" Men and Social Roles, (2024), Feminist Philosophy Quarterly, 10 (1/2). Article 11.
In 1983, Andrea Dworkin argued that we won't put an end to the culture of rape unless men take responsibility for it. In this paper I search for a theory of collective responsibility that can vindicate Dworkin's sentiment. I argue that by combining Robin Zheng's (2018) role-ideal model of responsibility with Charlotte Witt's (2011) conception of gender as a mega social role, we find a philosophically satisfying theory of what it means to say, with Dworkin, that men are responsible for the culture of rape.
Trust’s meno problem: Can the doxastic view account for the value of trust? (2023), Philosophical Psychology, DOI: 10.1080/09515089.2023.2206837 (open access).
Arnon Keren (2020) gestures toward a new objection to the doxastic view of trust—the view that trust essentially involves belief. The worry calls into question the doxastic view's ability to explain the distinct and indispensable value of trust. I take up Keren's challenge. I firstly contextualise and elucidate the problem; then, I disambiguate between multiple interpretations in pursuit of the most challenging; finally, I countenance some insights from Katherine Hawley's (2012; 2019) work on trust to offer a solution.
Email me if you'd like to discuss any of these, or see a draft.
A paper on epistemic norms and conversation. (R&R at Noûs)
Synopsis: A range of putatively non-epistemic, pragmatic norms of assertion - e.g. relevance, clarity, manner - are in fact epistemic after all.
A paper on the reasons and rational control of trust. (Under review)
Synopsis: Is trust belief- or action-like in its relation to reasons and rational control? I offer a new lens through which to approach this debate, and use it to defend the belief-like account.
A paper on testimony and inquiry. (Under review)
Synopsis: Inquiry-centric epistemology provides sharp resources for theorising the wide range of roles that testimony plays in our epistemic lives.
A paper on assertion without sanctions. (In prep)
Synopsis: Assertion requires norm-governance, but norm-governance does not require sanctionability - at least not in the way that this notion has recently been deployed in debates surrounding LLM assertion.
A critical notice on Annalisa Coliva's recent account of hinge trust and its application to AI. (In prep)
Synopsis: Coliva's revisionary account of trust comes with high theoretical costs, and one need not pay them in order to account for trust in AI.