Social Norms and Epistemic Value

TOPIC DESCRIPTION: Individuals' decisions are driven by a multitude of factors that may pull in different directions: economic incentives, social norms, values and roles. For instance, gender bias can often deteriorate our judgments about other people’s skills or attitudes; yet, awareness of such mechanisms enables us to find strategies to counter these biases. In this workshop, we discuss how social norms influence our decisions and affect our reasoning about the course of actions we intend to take. More specifically, we explore the mutual influence between social norms and epistemic values: on the one hand, how social norms affect our judgments about interactive choices; on the other hand, how the same reasoning tools are used in the social world. That is, the workshop highlights the rational and deliberative components involved in real-world decisions, and it proceeds toward a better understanding of the social aspects of knowledge and belief.

After the workshop, we cordially invite you to the PhD defense of Chiara Lisciandra which will take place at 14:15 in the auditorium of Tilburg University.