Is There a Correlation Between Identity Markers and Knowledge?

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There are correlations between one's identity markers and one's knowledge. Even that apparently trivial point can have implications which are sometimes forgotten. People tend to trust more of those at the top of social hierarchies if they know who is dangerous in a workplace, he says. The idea like the idea of your social position gives you access to certain kinds of knowledge isn't just meant to be an empirical fact but rather a more substantial thing called standpoint epistemology where people see things from perspective of their own interests or something like that.

Everybody talks about the truth, but nobody does anything about it. And to be honest, how we talk about truth — what it is, and how to get there — can be a little sloppy at times. Philosophy to the rescue! I had a very ambitious conversation with Liam Kofi Bright, starting with what we mean by “truth” (correspondence, coherence, pragmatist, and deflationary approaches), and then getting into the nitty-gritty of how we actually discover it. There’s a lot to think about once we take a hard look at how science gets done, how discoveries are communicated, and what different kinds of participants can bring to the table.

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Liam Kofi Bright received his Ph.D. in Logic, Computation and Methodology from Carnegie Mellon University. He is currently on the faculty of the London School of Economics in the Department of Philosophy, Logic, and the Scientific Method. He has worked on questions concerning peer review and fraud in scientific communities, intersectionality, logical empiricism, and Africana philosophy. He is well-known on Twitter as the Last Positivist.

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