Event Time: 4pm PT/7pm ET/9am (Wed.) AET
“Trust and Hostile Epistemology”
C. Thi Nguyen with Johnny Brennan
A key vulnerability for cognitively limited beings such as ourselves arises from trust. Much of the current misinformation crisis seems to derive from misplaced trust – trust in anti-science celebrities, trust in conspiracy theory forums and propagandistic media networks sources. Because we are so cognitively small, in order to cope with the world, we must trust each other, and that trust makes us profoundly vulnerable. That trust can be exploited, even when we have done our due diligence. In this event, C. Thi Nguyen will discuss his idea of “hostile epistemology” as the study of the ways in which environmental features exploit our cognitive vulnerabilities – especially those vulnerabilities that are unavoidable because they arise from the essential condition of our epistemic lives. You can find out more and register here.
You can read C. Thi Nguyen’s essay on hostile epistemology here and Johnny Brennan’s newly published essay, “Trust and the Please for Recognition” here.