Katherine Puddifoot (University of Sheffield) on 'Accessibilism and the challenge from implicit bias'

The CEU Department of Philosophy cordially invites you to a talk

by

Katherine Puddifoot  (University of Sheffield)

on

Accessibilism and the Challenge from Implicit Bias

Monday, 26 May, 2014, 3.00 PM, Zrinyi 14, Room 412

ABSTRACT

Recent research in social psychology suggests that many beliefs are formed as a result of implicit biases in favour of members of certain groups and against members of other groups. People believe that p as a direct result of implicit biases directed towards members of certain ethnic, gender, religious or age groups. This paper argues that beliefs of this sort present a problem for accessibilism in epistemology because the position cannot account for how the epistemic status of a belief that is the result of an implicit bias can differ from that of a counterpart belief that is the result of an unbiased response to the available evidence. Accessibilism is constrained in this way by its accessibility constraint on the justifiers and defeaters of the justification of beliefs, which suggests that only consciously accessible factors, and not inaccessible factors like implicit biases, can be relevant to the justification of a belief. It shall be shown that this result is inconsistent with the motivations for endorsing accessibilism. The paper therefore presents a dilemma for accessibilism: Its defenders can either accept that the fact that a belief is influenced by an implicit bias can be relevant to its epistemic justification, thereby denying the central tenet of the position (i.e. the accessibility constraint), or they can maintain that implicit biases are irrelevant, defending a position that is inconsistent with the goals that initially motivated them to endorse the position.