In a recent article in this journal, Ari Deller has argued that there are some severe epistemic costs to super-persuasive AI. In this commentary I explain why, while I agree with Deller about the epis...

Political epistemology has recently emerged as an area of analytic epistemology. While it may not be an entirely new area, and its precise boundaries are up for negotiation, recent political events in...

A guide for mediocre, unambitious and spiritually European academics

The slogan ‘Do Your Own Research’ (DYOR) is often invoked by people who are distrustful, even downright sceptical, of recognised expert authorities. While this slogan serves various rhetorical purp...

Why the study of political belief keeps flattering the people doing it—and how to fix this

Plus why it is not the same as the social turn

This is a lightly edited version of a paper I will be giving this summer at a conference organised by the “Knowledge in Crisis” project. I’m going to talk about politicisation because, in my view, the...

Why it can be, but is not always, a bad thing

Why it can be, but is not always, a bad thing

The slogan ‘Do Your Own Research’ (DYOR) is often invoked by people who are distrustful, even downright sceptical, of recognised expert authorities. While this slogan serves various rhetorical purp...

We're overdoing something, but I'm not sure it is democracy

A Strategic Approach to Manufacturing Consensus

I started studying philosophy in a windy town on the east coast of Scotland in 2004.

This is admittedly a little niche

On the Epistemic Injustice as a Central Organising Concept

Three core commitments run through Kornblith's work in epistemology. First, epistemologists should investigate knowledge itself rather than the concept of knowledge. Second, knowledge is a natural ki...

This paper examines the ethical, epistemological, and political implications of persuasive AI technologies. Recent research suggests that AI is roughly as persuasive as humans in many contexts. Should...

This paper examines the ethical, epistemological, and political implications of persuasive AI technologies. Recent research suggests that AI is roughly as persuasive as humans in many contexts. Should...

This interview with Contralytic ended up being my philosophical manifesto.

In his excellent new book Epistemic Courage Jonathan Ichikawa argues that epistemology evinces a bias towards the skeptical. In its most extreme forms (i.e. radical skepticism), this leads to complete...

This paper examines the ethical, epistemological, and political implications of persuasive AI technologies. Recent research suggests that AI is roughly as persuasive as humans in many contexts. Should...

This paper examines the ethical, epistemological, and political implications of persuasive AI technologies. Recent research suggests that AI is roughly as persuasive as humans in many contexts. Should...

It won’t surprise readers of this Substack to learn that I am, at heart, a cynic and a pessimist.

A Review of Cory Wimberly's How Propaganda Became Public Relations

This is the editors' introduction to a special issue on Ideal and Non-Ideal Theory in Epistemology in the International Journal of Philosophical Studies.

In recent years, the traditional outlook and methods of analytic epistemology with its thought experiments, Gettierology and definition-mongering have beco

Epistemology is rife with idealization. And, although concern about particular idealizations—logical omniscience, infinite iterations of common knowledge, and so on—is long-standing, systematic metaep...