René Van Woudenberg
Biographic Data
| ID | 1224329 |
|---|---|
| NAME | René Van Woudenberg |
| GIVEN NAMES | René |
| FAMILY NAME | Van Woudenberg |
| SIGNATURE | VAN WOUDENBERG R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1169-6539 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 4 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 9 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2018 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
The University, Epistemic Power, and Institutional Epistemic Responsibilities
Some social institutions have clear epistemic aims: to create, accumulate, exchange, and disseminate knowledge, understanding, and other epistemic goods. While much recent literature in social epistemology has focused on identifying and analysing epistemic wrongs in these institutions, less attention has been paid to how institutions can realise their epistemic aims and correct for epistemic harms, wrongs, and mistakes. To this end, we introduce …
Authorship and ChatGPT
Is ChatGPT an author? Given its capacity to generate something that reads like human-written text in response to prompts, it might seem natural to ascribe authorship to ChatGPT. However, we argue that ChatGPT is not an author. ChatGPT fails to meet the criteria of authorship because it lacks the ability to perform illocutionary speech acts such as promising or asserting, lacks the fitting mental states like knowledge, belief, or intention, and ca…
John Ruskin on Reading
Victorians read a lot, and they reflected on reading: Why read? What to read? Reading to what goal? After some stage setting, this article discusses four of John Ruskin’s thoughts on reading as expounded in Sesame and Lilies (1865) and that have never received much attention. (1) There are two species of books, “books of the hour” and “books of all time.” (2) The selection of which books to read is an ethical matter. (3) The norm for reading that…
Argumentative strategies against scientism
This paper presents and discusses various strategies that have been wielded against scientism, roughly the claim that only science can give us knowledge. The strategies identified are: (1) the counter example strategy, (2) the denying of claimed entailments of science strategy, (3) the self-undermining strategy, (4) the presupposition strategy, and (5) the limits of science strategy. In addition, two proposals are discussed that aim to recast the…
Explanations of Research Misconduct, and How They Hang Together
In this paper, we explore different possible explanations for research misconduct (especially falsification and fabrication), and investigate whether they are compatible. We suggest that to explain research misconduct, we should pay attention to three factors: (1) the beliefs and desires of the misconductor, (2) contextual affordances, (3) and unconscious biases or influences. We draw on the three different narratives (individual, institutional, …
Collective ignorance
We are ignorant knowers. This paper proposes an information theoretic explanation of that fact. The explanation is a conjunction of three claims. First, that even in those dimensions where we are capable of picking up information, there is information that we don’t pick up. Second, that there can be dimensions of information for which we lack the capacity to pick up any information whatsoever. Third, that we don’t know whether the faculties and c…
Reading as a source of knowledge
This paper argues that reading is a source of knowledge. Epistemologists have virtually ignored reading as a source of knowledge. This paper argues, first, that reading is not to be equated with attending to testimony, and second that it cannot be reduced to perception. Next an analysis of reading is offered and the source of knowledge that reading is further delineated. Finally it is argued that the source that reading is, can be both transmissi…
The Cambridge Companion to Common-Sense Philosophy
Common-sense philosophy is important because it maintains that we can know many things about the world, about ourselves, about morality, and even about things of a metaphysical nature. The tenets of common-sense philosophy, while in some sense obvious and unsurprising, give rise to powerful arguments that can shed light on fundamental philosophical issues, including the perennial problem of scepticism and the emerging challenge of scientism. This…
Scientific Challenges to Common Sense Philosophy
Scientism
Can only science deliver genuine knowledge about the world and ourselves? Is science our only guide to what exists? Adherents of scientism tend to answer both questions with yes. Scientism is increasingly influential in popular scientific literature and intellectual life in general, but philosophers have hitherto largely ignored it. This collection is one of the first to develop and assess scientism as a serious philosophical position. It feature…
Scientism
Collective ignorance
We are ignorant knowers. This paper proposes an information theoretic explanation of that fact. The explanation is a conjunction of three claims. First, that even in those dimensions where we are capable of picking up information, there is information that we don’t pick up. Second, that there can be dimensions of information for which we lack the capacity to pick up any information whatsoever. Third, that we don’t know whether the faculties and c…
Reading as a source of knowledge
This paper argues that reading is a source of knowledge. Epistemologists have virtually ignored reading as a source of knowledge. This paper argues, first, that reading is not to be equated with attending to testimony, and second that it cannot be reduced to perception. Next an analysis of reading is offered and the source of knowledge that reading is further delineated. Finally it is argued that the source that reading is, can be both transmissi…
Scientism
Can only science deliver genuine knowledge about the world and ourselves? Is science our only guide to what exists? Adherents of scientism tend to answer both questions with yes. Scientism is increasingly influential in popular scientific literature and intellectual life in general, but philosophers have hitherto largely ignored it. This collection is one of the first to develop and assess scientism as a serious philosophical position. It feature…
Scientism
The Cambridge Companion to Common-Sense Philosophy
Common-sense philosophy is important because it maintains that we can know many things about the world, about ourselves, about morality, and even about things of a metaphysical nature. The tenets of common-sense philosophy, while in some sense obvious and unsurprising, give rise to powerful arguments that can shed light on fundamental philosophical issues, including the perennial problem of scepticism and the emerging challenge of scientism. This…
Scientific Challenges to Common Sense Philosophy
Explanations of Research Misconduct, and How They Hang Together
In this paper, we explore different possible explanations for research misconduct (especially falsification and fabrication), and investigate whether they are compatible. We suggest that to explain research misconduct, we should pay attention to three factors: (1) the beliefs and desires of the misconductor, (2) contextual affordances, (3) and unconscious biases or influences. We draw on the three different narratives (individual, institutional, …
Collective ignorance
We are ignorant knowers. This paper proposes an information theoretic explanation of that fact. The explanation is a conjunction of three claims. First, that even in those dimensions where we are capable of picking up information, there is information that we don’t pick up. Second, that there can be dimensions of information for which we lack the capacity to pick up any information whatsoever. Third, that we don’t know whether the faculties and c…
Reading as a source of knowledge
This paper argues that reading is a source of knowledge. Epistemologists have virtually ignored reading as a source of knowledge. This paper argues, first, that reading is not to be equated with attending to testimony, and second that it cannot be reduced to perception. Next an analysis of reading is offered and the source of knowledge that reading is further delineated. Finally it is argued that the source that reading is, can be both transmissi…
John Ruskin on Reading
Victorians read a lot, and they reflected on reading: Why read? What to read? Reading to what goal? After some stage setting, this article discusses four of John Ruskin’s thoughts on reading as expounded in Sesame and Lilies (1865) and that have never received much attention. (1) There are two species of books, “books of the hour” and “books of all time.” (2) The selection of which books to read is an ethical matter. (3) The norm for reading that…
Argumentative strategies against scientism
This paper presents and discusses various strategies that have been wielded against scientism, roughly the claim that only science can give us knowledge. The strategies identified are: (1) the counter example strategy, (2) the denying of claimed entailments of science strategy, (3) the self-undermining strategy, (4) the presupposition strategy, and (5) the limits of science strategy. In addition, two proposals are discussed that aim to recast the…
Authorship and ChatGPT
Is ChatGPT an author? Given its capacity to generate something that reads like human-written text in response to prompts, it might seem natural to ascribe authorship to ChatGPT. However, we argue that ChatGPT is not an author. ChatGPT fails to meet the criteria of authorship because it lacks the ability to perform illocutionary speech acts such as promising or asserting, lacks the fitting mental states like knowledge, belief, or intention, and ca…
The University, Epistemic Power, and Institutional Epistemic Responsibilities
Some social institutions have clear epistemic aims: to create, accumulate, exchange, and disseminate knowledge, understanding, and other epistemic goods. While much recent literature in social epistemology has focused on identifying and analysing epistemic wrongs in these institutions, less attention has been paid to how institutions can realise their epistemic aims and correct for epistemic harms, wrongs, and mistakes. To this end, we introduce …
Epistemology (9 works) · Philosophy (8 works) · Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics (5 works) · Metaphysics (4 works) · Philosophy of science (4 works) · Computer Science (3 works) · Psychology (3 works) · Scientism (3 works) · Sociology (3 works) · Artificial Intelligence (2 works)