Klemens Kappel

Short presentation

My main area of research is social epistemology, which covers questions concerning how knowledge, justified belief, or evidence for beliefs may be generated in or depend on social context. Generally, what we know depend on social contexts in various ways, say because what we know is transmitted from others, or because evidence or justification is generated in way that depend on certain forms of collaboration. What kind of social settings are conducive to the production or dissemination of knowledge, justified belief or evidence? Knowledge and true belief is often said to be promoted by exchange of reasons and arguments, but why is that so, and under what conditions? Diversity is often though to promote the prodution of knowledge in groups, but why and which forms of diversity have these effects? Can groups, organisations or corporates have knowlegde or justified belief, or is this strictly speaking reserved to individuals? How should we rationally react when we discover that we disagree with others, in particular others we thought to be as competent as ourselves? Does it make a difference whether I disagree with one other individual or with 10.000 others? And what is the role of consensus - suppose I not only disagree with some, but also agree with many? Why is consensus among experts important (if it is)? When is dissensus important, and when is it malignant? What should we think about the various forms of biases that affect our detection and uptake of evidence (in particular various forms of confirmation biases). 

Some of the questions I work with overlap with political philosophy: Does science and scientific knowledge have a priviledge status in democratic decision-making? How should are legitimate decisions to be made in cases where we face incalcitrant disagreements about the facts? What role can religious reason have in public reason? What role should scientific reasons have? How should freedom of speech be motivated?  

I direct the research group SERG, focusing on these questions, and I am head of the research project Convergent ethics and ethics of controversy (CEEC).

I also have some interest in general questions in political philosophy and bioethics, and have recently published on moral compromises in politics and on consent based on trust in medical contexts. 

In addition, I am interested in general questions in epistemology about reliabilism, epistemic consequentialism, the Gettier problem, the generality problem, epistemic relativism and meta-epistemoology (the nature of attributions of knowledge). 

Teaching

I teach and supervise primarily in epistemology, social epsitemology, political philosophy, and bioethics. I have extensive experience with supervising BA and MA theses in many areas in contemporary anglophone philosophy. If you consider writing a BA or MA thesis with me, please do not hesitate to contact me on [email protected]