#783 Kevin Dorst: Epistemology, Justified Beliefs, and Epistemic Modesty
RECORDED ON NOVEMBER 18th 2022.
Dr. Kevin Dorst is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at MIT. He works on epistemology, logic, language, and their intersections. In epistemology he’s interested in what we should think (the belief-credence connection), why we should think it (foundations), and how we should think about what we should think (higher-order uncertainty). In logic, he’s interested in various models of these things; in language, he’s interested the semantics of various statements about them. More recently, he’s been thinking about the connection between epistemology and cognitive science and psychology—and, in particular, how our idealized models and theories of rationality can help inform our understanding of our non-ideal selves.
In this episode, we talk about epistemology. We go through topics like: the questions epistemology deals with; what a belief is; the distinction between beliefs, assertions, and guesses; justified beliefs; higher-order evidence, and higher-order uncertainty; epistemic modesty; and when to defer to experts.
Time Links:
Intro
What is epistemology?
What is a belief?
Beliefs, assertions, and guesses
Justified beliefs
Higher-order evidence, and higher-order uncertainty
Epistemic modesty
Deferring to the experts
Follow Dr. Dorst’s work!
Follow Dr. Dorst’s work:
Faculty page: https://bit.ly/3Scz3YW
Website: https://bit.ly/3P7LvHG
PhilPeople profile: https://bit.ly/3AMiFbt