Epistemic Gatekeeping, Pride or Prejudice?

null, Joe Ulatowski

Center of International Philosophy International Speaker Series

Date: September 21st, 2022 - 4pm China Standard Time

Speaker: Dr. Joe Ulatowski (University of Waikato, New Zealand)

Title: Epistemic Gatekeeping, Pride or Prejudice?

Abstract: The continuous growth of intellectual ecosystems leads to an environment that is populated by mutually uncomprehending hyperspecialised groups. That there are such groups can be taken to reflect the way that human knowledge has expanded and deepened to such an extent that one person may only ever have a detailed grasp of a very narrow topic. People, for example, no longer specialise in medicine or law but hyperspecialise in endocrinology or patent law. They occupy a specialised cognitive niche with its own epistemic standards and linguistic register. Enter gatekeepers whose sole responsibility is to judge whether new entrants meet disciplinary standards. If the novice fails to meet the niche group’s standards, then gatekeepers are tasked with making sure that they do not gain full entrance to that group. Whilst there is no doubt that these gatekeepers are experts and highly skilled practitioners of their craft, such skill and expertise do not preclude them from acting upon cognitive biases and prejudices. On the contrary, as I argue in this paper, it may be that they may be even more likely to act on biases and prejudices than their non-expert counterparts because of (i) the social and intellectual reinforcement that gatekeepers receive from peers, (ii) the gatekeeper’s inability to assess their own limited capacities, and (iii) the gatekeeper’s ignorance of the limits of hyperspecialisation. The gatekeepers lofty professional position may oblige them to eject interlopers, but some of the decisions that they make may have more to do with misogynistic, transphobic, and racist tendencies than with the merits of the new entrant’s work.

Bio: Joe Ulatowski is a senior lecturer at the University of Waikato, specialising in Metaphysics and the Philosophy of Language. Originally a Bostonian, he earned a BSc in Business Administration and a BSc in History from Methodist University (1998), an MA in Philosophy from the University of Mississippi (2002), and a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Utah (2008). He has held a number of visiting positions at a variety of universities in the United States before obtaining a permanent position in New Zealand. He is the author of  the book "Why Facts Matter: Pluralism about Facts in the Age of Fake News" (forthcoming) and the co-author of the book "Truth" (with Jeremy Wyatt) (forthcoming). 

Zoom ID: 87576262294

Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87576262294

Password: 955761