Stefaan Blancke
Biographic Data
| ID | 78658 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Stefaan Blancke |
| GIVEN NAMES | Stefaan |
| FAMILY NAME | Blancke |
| SIGNATURE | BLANCKE S |
| AFFILIATIONS | Ghent University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7807-5606 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 13 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Nothing about collective irrationalities makes sense except in the light of cooperation
To secure cooperative opportunities people align their beliefs with the normative expectations of their social environment. These expectations are continuously managed by interactive reasoning, a process that results in dynamical pools of reasons. When people are more concerned about their social standing and reputation than truth, pools of reasons give rise to collective irrationalities. They determine what people should believe if they want to …
Remote Consultations for Mental Health: Patient Experiences
“Trust Me, I’m a Scientist”: How Philosophy of Science Can Help Explain Why Science Deserves Primacy in Dealing with Societal Problems
Modern democratic societies tend to appeal to the authority of science when dealing with important challenges and solving their problems. Nevertheless, distrust in science remains widespread among the public, and, as a result, scientific voices are often ignored or discarded in favour of other perspectives. Though superficially “democratic”, such a demotion of science in fact hinders democratic societies in effectively tackling their problems. Wo…
Science as a moral system
Science is a collaborative effort to produce knowledge. Scientists thus must assess what information is trustworthy and who is a competent and honest source and partner. Facing the problem of trust, we can expect scientists to be vigilant. In response to their peers’ vigilance scientists will provide reasons, not only to convince their colleagues to adopt their practices or beliefs, but also to demonstrate that their beliefs and practices are jus…
Scaling up interactive argumentation by providing counterarguments with a chatbot
Methods for studying cultural attraction
Cultural attraction theory (CAT) describes a general evolutionary process, cultural attraction, by which the spread and stability of cultural items (beliefs, practices, artifacts, etc.) result not just from differential reproduction, but also from transformations that systematically favor the reconstruction of cultural items of specific types. In this way, CAT aims to provide a general framework for the study of cultural evolution. In a thoughtfu…
Reasonable Irrationality: The Role of Reasons in the Diffusion of Pseudoscience
Pseudoscience spreads through communicative and inferential processes that make people vulnerable to weird beliefs. However, the fact that pseudoscientific beliefs are unsubstantiated and have no basis in reality does not mean that the people who hold them have no reasons for doing so. We propose that, reasons play a central role in the diffusion of pseudoscience. On the basis of cultural epidemiology and the interactionist theory of reasoning, w…
Four misunderstandings about cultural attraction
Cultural attraction theory (CAT) is a research agenda the purpose of which is to develop causal explanations of cultural phenomena. CAT is also an evolutionary approach to culture, in the sense that it treats culture as a population of items of different types, with the frequency of tokens of those types changing over time. Now more than 20 years old, CAT has made many positive contributions, theoretical and empirical, to the naturalization of th…
Bringing Darwin into the social sciences and the humanities: Cultural Evolution and Its Philosophical Implications
Why Do Irrational Beliefs Mimic Science? The Cultural Evolution of Pseudoscience
Why do irrational beliefs adopt the trappings of science, to become what is known as “pseudoscience”? Here, we develop and extend an epidemiological framework to map the factors that explain the form and the popularity of irrational beliefs in scientific garb. These factors include the exploitation of epistemic vigilance, the misunderstanding of the authority of science, the use of the honorific title of “science” as an explicit argument for beli…
Lord Monboddo’s Ourang-Outang and the Origin and Progress of Language
Catholic Responses to Evolution, 1859–2009: Local Influences and Mid‐Scale Patterns
This article discusses C atholic responses to evolution between 1859, the year of publication of C harles D arwin's O n the O rigin of S pecies , and 2009, the year in which the scientific world celebrated its 150th anniversary. Firstly, I will discuss how the V atican initially responded to evolution in the period between 1859 and 1907, the year in which P ope P ius X issued the encyclical P ascendi dominici gregis . Secondly, I will explore the…
Creationism in Europe: Facts, Gaps, and Prospects
The purpose of our article is threefold. First, we present and discuss the extant literature on creationism in Europe (the “facts”). Within this section, we offer a review of the literature as well as an overview of the most remarkable developments and events recorded therein. Second, we indicate which material is missing from the literature (the “gaps”) and signal which gaps we think should first be filled. Third, on the basis of a forthcoming i…
The Implications of the Cognitive Sciences for the Relation Between Religion and Science Education: The Case of Evolutionary Theory
Raf de Bont, Darwins kleinkinderen. De evolutietheorie in Belgïe 1865-1945
TSEG (Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis) - The Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History, is het Nederlands-Vlaamse vaktijdschrift op het gebied van de sociale en economische geschiedenis
Scaling up interactive argumentation by providing counterarguments with a chatbot
The Implications of the Cognitive Sciences for the Relation Between Religion and Science Education: The Case of Evolutionary Theory
Science as a moral system
Science is a collaborative effort to produce knowledge. Scientists thus must assess what information is trustworthy and who is a competent and honest source and partner. Facing the problem of trust, we can expect scientists to be vigilant. In response to their peers’ vigilance scientists will provide reasons, not only to convince their colleagues to adopt their practices or beliefs, but also to demonstrate that their beliefs and practices are jus…
Reasonable Irrationality: The Role of Reasons in the Diffusion of Pseudoscience
Pseudoscience spreads through communicative and inferential processes that make people vulnerable to weird beliefs. However, the fact that pseudoscientific beliefs are unsubstantiated and have no basis in reality does not mean that the people who hold them have no reasons for doing so. We propose that, reasons play a central role in the diffusion of pseudoscience. On the basis of cultural epidemiology and the interactionist theory of reasoning, w…
Bringing Darwin into the social sciences and the humanities: Cultural Evolution and Its Philosophical Implications
Catholic Responses to Evolution, 1859–2009: Local Influences and Mid‐Scale Patterns
This article discusses C atholic responses to evolution between 1859, the year of publication of C harles D arwin's O n the O rigin of S pecies , and 2009, the year in which the scientific world celebrated its 150th anniversary. Firstly, I will discuss how the V atican initially responded to evolution in the period between 1859 and 1907, the year in which P ope P ius X issued the encyclical P ascendi dominici gregis . Secondly, I will explore the…
Creationism in Europe: Facts, Gaps, and Prospects
The purpose of our article is threefold. First, we present and discuss the extant literature on creationism in Europe (the “facts”). Within this section, we offer a review of the literature as well as an overview of the most remarkable developments and events recorded therein. Second, we indicate which material is missing from the literature (the “gaps”) and signal which gaps we think should first be filled. Third, on the basis of a forthcoming i…
Raf de Bont, Darwins kleinkinderen. De evolutietheorie in Belgïe 1865-1945
TSEG (Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis) - The Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History, is het Nederlands-Vlaamse vaktijdschrift op het gebied van de sociale en economische geschiedenis
The Implications of the Cognitive Sciences for the Relation Between Religion and Science Education: The Case of Evolutionary Theory
Catholic Responses to Evolution, 1859–2009: Local Influences and Mid‐Scale Patterns
This article discusses C atholic responses to evolution between 1859, the year of publication of C harles D arwin's O n the O rigin of S pecies , and 2009, the year in which the scientific world celebrated its 150th anniversary. Firstly, I will discuss how the V atican initially responded to evolution in the period between 1859 and 1907, the year in which P ope P ius X issued the encyclical P ascendi dominici gregis . Secondly, I will explore the…
Creationism in Europe: Facts, Gaps, and Prospects
The purpose of our article is threefold. First, we present and discuss the extant literature on creationism in Europe (the “facts”). Within this section, we offer a review of the literature as well as an overview of the most remarkable developments and events recorded therein. Second, we indicate which material is missing from the literature (the “gaps”) and signal which gaps we think should first be filled. Third, on the basis of a forthcoming i…
Lord Monboddo’s Ourang-Outang and the Origin and Progress of Language
Why Do Irrational Beliefs Mimic Science? The Cultural Evolution of Pseudoscience
Why do irrational beliefs adopt the trappings of science, to become what is known as “pseudoscience”? Here, we develop and extend an epidemiological framework to map the factors that explain the form and the popularity of irrational beliefs in scientific garb. These factors include the exploitation of epistemic vigilance, the misunderstanding of the authority of science, the use of the honorific title of “science” as an explicit argument for beli…
Four misunderstandings about cultural attraction
Cultural attraction theory (CAT) is a research agenda the purpose of which is to develop causal explanations of cultural phenomena. CAT is also an evolutionary approach to culture, in the sense that it treats culture as a population of items of different types, with the frequency of tokens of those types changing over time. Now more than 20 years old, CAT has made many positive contributions, theoretical and empirical, to the naturalization of th…
Bringing Darwin into the social sciences and the humanities: Cultural Evolution and Its Philosophical Implications
Methods for studying cultural attraction
Cultural attraction theory (CAT) describes a general evolutionary process, cultural attraction, by which the spread and stability of cultural items (beliefs, practices, artifacts, etc.) result not just from differential reproduction, but also from transformations that systematically favor the reconstruction of cultural items of specific types. In this way, CAT aims to provide a general framework for the study of cultural evolution. In a thoughtfu…
Reasonable Irrationality: The Role of Reasons in the Diffusion of Pseudoscience
Pseudoscience spreads through communicative and inferential processes that make people vulnerable to weird beliefs. However, the fact that pseudoscientific beliefs are unsubstantiated and have no basis in reality does not mean that the people who hold them have no reasons for doing so. We propose that, reasons play a central role in the diffusion of pseudoscience. On the basis of cultural epidemiology and the interactionist theory of reasoning, w…
“Trust Me, I’m a Scientist”: How Philosophy of Science Can Help Explain Why Science Deserves Primacy in Dealing with Societal Problems
Modern democratic societies tend to appeal to the authority of science when dealing with important challenges and solving their problems. Nevertheless, distrust in science remains widespread among the public, and, as a result, scientific voices are often ignored or discarded in favour of other perspectives. Though superficially “democratic”, such a demotion of science in fact hinders democratic societies in effectively tackling their problems. Wo…
Science as a moral system
Science is a collaborative effort to produce knowledge. Scientists thus must assess what information is trustworthy and who is a competent and honest source and partner. Facing the problem of trust, we can expect scientists to be vigilant. In response to their peers’ vigilance scientists will provide reasons, not only to convince their colleagues to adopt their practices or beliefs, but also to demonstrate that their beliefs and practices are jus…
Scaling up interactive argumentation by providing counterarguments with a chatbot
Nothing about collective irrationalities makes sense except in the light of cooperation
To secure cooperative opportunities people align their beliefs with the normative expectations of their social environment. These expectations are continuously managed by interactive reasoning, a process that results in dynamical pools of reasons. When people are more concerned about their social standing and reputation than truth, pools of reasons give rise to collective irrationalities. They determine what people should believe if they want to …
Remote Consultations for Mental Health: Patient Experiences
Philosophy (8 works) · Psychology (8 works) · Epistemology (7 works) · Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation (7 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Computer Science (5 works) · Evolution and Science Education (4 works) · History (4 works) · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment (4 works) · Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics (3 works)