Swarm scholarship and the fundamental epistemology of the collective method.
While it seems trivially true that adding additional scholars to study something should increase our knowledge, it is not clear exactly how they do so. Why should we think that something like 'swarm' scholarship would be successful? In this essay, I identify three basic ways in which studying a doma...
| Publicado en: | Social Identities Vol. 15; no. 4; pp. 495 - 509 |
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| Autor principal: | |
| Formato: | Artículo |
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Taylor & Francis Ltd
Jul2009
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| Sumario: | While it seems trivially true that adding additional scholars to study something should increase our knowledge, it is not clear exactly how they do so. Why should we think that something like 'swarm' scholarship would be successful? In this essay, I identify three basic ways in which studying a domain using a group of scholars could enhance our knowledge in ways traditional epistemologists could appreciate. One way is when each of number of individuals adds to the number of beliefs (or justification of beliefs) so the total amount of justified true beliefs we have increases. A second family is when something combines the beliefs claimed by different individuals into some kind of superior synthesis. A third family is when group members do things to help other group members add justified beliefs, creating a kind of multiplier effect. |
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