Fake news and epistemic flooding

Bibliographic Data

ID10815325
AuthorsGlenn Anderau (0000-0003-4736-1922, University of Zurich, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume202
Issue4
Publication date2023-09-24
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSynthese (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0039-7857 • E-ISSN: 1573-0964
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s11229-023-04336-7
OpenAlexW4386998152
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited26

The advance of the internet and social media has had a drastic impact on our epistemic environment. This paper will focus on two different risks epistemic agents face online: being exposed to fake news and epistemic flooding. While the first risk is widely known and has been extensively discussed in the philosophical literature, the notion of ‘epistemic flooding’ is a novel concept introduced in this paper. Epistemic flooding occurs when epistemic agents find themselves in epistemic environments in which they are routinely confronted with more information and evidence than they can diligently process. Epistemic flooding is one of the most significant risks epistemic agents run while using social media and one of the reasons why the first risk (being exposed to fake news) is especially pernicious. It is particularly harmful if one ascribes to the Spinozan model of belief acquisition in which belief comes easy. Mitigating the combined threat of fake news and epistemic flooding requires us to think normatively about our epistemic environments and how to better them. This paper turns to the normative framework of epistemic environmentalism in order to accomplish this

Epistemic virtue · Epistemology · Focus (optics) · Metaphysics · Normative · Philosophy of language · Philosophy of science · Social epistemology · Sociology · Uncertainty quantification · Computer Science · Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Philosophy · Political Philosophy and Ethics

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