Knowing in Historical and Cross-Cultural Context

British Society for the History of Philosophy Annual Conference

14–15 April 2023, University of Aberdeen

Knowing in Historical and Cross-Cultural Context


Keynote speakers:

Peter Adamson (LMU München)

Maria Rosa Antognazza (KCL)

Karyn Lai (UNSW)


This conference will explore conceptions and forms of knowing in historical and cross-cultural context. Contemporary analytic epistemology has focused on the relationships between knowing and believing and between knowing-that and knowing-how. But has this always been the case in the history of epistemology? In recent years, there has been increasing interest in social epistemology and virtue epistemology, which raises more obvious questions of historical and cultural variation. What other epistemological conceptions and concerns can be found around the world and through history? Comparative epistemology is now starting to thrive, so how can the debates here be integrated into ‘mainstream’ epistemology?

Questions to be addressed include:

• What forms of knowing other than knowing-that and knowing-how are there? Have some forms of knowing been privileged at different times and in different cultures?

• How has the relationship between knowing and believing been understood by different philosophers, in different historical periods, and in different cultures?

• What variation in epistemic concepts is there across history and cultures?

• How have different cultures regarded the value of knowledge?

• How should epistemology be reconceived to do better epistemic justice to the full range of epistemic concepts?

We welcome submissions that address any of these or related questions, from any disciplinary or interdisciplinary perspective. A special issue of the BJHP is planned, with selected papers from the conference.

Abstracts of 300–400 words to be sent by 7 January 2023 to: [email protected]

Abstracts should be prepared for blind reviewing, with author details on a separate page. Authors will be informed by the end of January at the latest.

Enquiries to: [email protected]

The University of Aberdeen is a charity registered in Scotland, No SC013683.
Tha Oilthigh Obar Dheathain na charthannas clàraichte ann an Alba, Àir. SC013683.