Knowledge and Society

ended

Mis-information is here to stay! Now that we all have access to information 24/7, controlling information in society is no longer a simple task when historically newspapers, for example, were the main source of news. Whether you live in a democracy or not, because of the internet, your sources of information have never been more varied, fluid and potentially volatile. The manipulative and dangerous consequences of this have become especially visible in recent years as unthinkable outcomes have become the apparent norm during elections, pandemics and swings towards political extremes. Social epistemology, as a sub-topic within philosophy, fits the gap of understanding how knowledge is affecting societies through new medias and forms of communication. Topics such as ‘fake news’, ‘knowledge resistance’, and ‘belief polarisation’ move faster than anyone can keep up with and the Knowledge and Society (KnowSoc) consortium is made up of experts within faculties of philosophy who are aware of the gap that their own national masters do not address in full. The KnowSoc consortium wishes to address this gap and come together to jointly design, develop and eventually deliver an International Masters in Knowledge and Society (KnowSoc) under the ERASMUS MUNDUS Design Measures umbrella. The eventual proposed programme will be a 2-year (120 ECTS) master allowing stnowSoc explores the connections between traditional epistemology and questions of a social or societal nature via a programme of courses in philosophy, summer schools and work placements. It will combine rigorous academic training in analytic philosophy (epistemology) and experience with important areas in which the philosophy of knowledge intersects with other topics of societal concern, including (but not limited to) testimony, disagreement, implicit biases, resistance to evidence, science communication, trust, epistemic bubbles and echo chambers, fake news, group knowledge and ignorance, propaganda and polarization.