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Credit: Courtesy, Women's Art Journal
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Credit: Courtesy, Episteme
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Goldman emerged as a leader in the discipline with his monograph “Knowledge in a Social World,” published in 1999. Based on his innovative work in the field, he had served as an editorial consultant to the journal’s founding editor, Leslie Marsh, with the University of Sussex in Great Britain, prior to agreeing to accept the editorial position last summer. The University of Edinburgh Press in Scotland will continue
to handle production of the journal; Marsh will stay on as administrative editor. A Rutgers graduate student, Dennis Whitcomb, will serve as a graduate assistant for the journal.
“Episteme is on the cutting edge of philosophical research and is genuinely interdisciplinary,” said Peter Klein, philosophy department chair. “The journal’s presence provides a rare opportunity for graduate students to become involved in research and scholarship in a unique way that would not easily occur if they were observing the field from afar.”
The multidisciplinary focus of social epistemology allows the journal to explore a range of contemporary social issues. For example, the newest issue includes research on the efficacy of torture. An article by Fairleigh Dickinson University economist Roger Koppl looks at game theory as it applies to torture, a new approach to weighing the merits of a longstanding, worldwide practice. Koppl posits that torture rarely works as an effective way of getting reliable information.
“Torturers do not know the truth when they hear it,” Koppl writes. “Torture victims understand this and therefore hide the truth. Torturers also cannot make a believable promise to stop torture when they hear the truth.”
“Philosophers used to ask what is needed to get to the truth,” Goldman said. “Now we are asking an additional question: Which practices in society actually work?”
Sometimes the answer is surprising. “Koppl’s study is a good example,” Goldman said. “In the past, critics of torture have pointed to moral issues, while assuming that torture works well. Koppl has shown it is wrong to assume torture works.”
A forthcoming conference sponsored by the journal will focus on diversity and dissent. Papers to be published include “The Bias Paradox in Feminist Standpoint Epistemology,” “Advocacy, Negotiation, and the Politics of Unknowing” and “Scientific Teamwork: Is There Room for Dissent?”
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