SPA Student Speaker Series: Michael Lara

Michael Lara (Cal State Long Beach)
‘On epistemic agency’
24 Sep 2020  •  5:00pm–6:00pm  •  Zoom link: https://csulb.zoom.us/j/94939101673

Abstract: What do we want from an epistemic theory? What actually matters? In my view, understanding holistic epistemic agency is what matters. Epistemic agency is the ability to form beliefs tractably via some reliable belief formation mechanism on the fly and the ability to ‘translate’ those beliefs into action in both usual and novel environments. Ultimately, beliefs are only as good or bad as the context in which they’re formed by the agent. Once one recognizes that the process of belief formation is an action—one that can be done better or worse—gradeability is introduced. It follows that knowing how to form beliefs is more fundamental than the beliefs that are formed; action is more fundamental to agency than bivalent beliefs.