Seminars of Philosophy of Perception, Mind, and Language — Winter session, 2018

 

Lisa Bortolotti (University of Birmingham)

When the personal becomes political: the use of autobiographical stories in the Brexit debate

 

8 aprile 2019: h. 12.30-14.30.

Sala "Enzo Paci" — Direzione del Dipartimento (Via Festa del Perdono 7, Milano)

Abstract:

We typically take agents to have epistemic duties about how they adopt and maintain their beliefs, and this seems particularly relevant to participants in a debate. In recent political debates in the public sphere, autobiographical and personally significant stories are offered in support of a viewpoint—not just as illustrations or examples of a general fact, but as evidence for a specific viewpoint that is at the centre of the debate. Do epistemic duties extend to our use of such stories? Using social media debates on Brexit as a case study, I illustrate some of the ways in which people use personal stories to support their political positions. When stories are used as the main source of evidence for a viewpoint that is being debated, a number of interesting issues in the ethics of belief emerge about their use. In the end, I discuss a number of strategies that may help improve the quality of public debates, highlighting their potential costs and benefits.

 

La conferenza si terrà in inglese.

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