Experimental Epistemology Research Group
The Experimental Epistemology Research Group (EERG) at UB consists of faculty, graduate students and undergraduates who seek to illuminate traditional and contemporary debates within epistemology (i.e., the philosophical study of knowledge and justified belief) by using the experimental methods of the cognitive and social sciences.
Our research is currently focused on uncovering various non-epistemic factors that influence ordinary subjects' inclinations to attribute or deny knowledge to others. According to philosophical tradition, knowledge is supposed to be true belief that is adequately based upon reasons or evidence. Recent studies reveal, however, that subjects' judgments about knowledge are influenced by a variety of non-epistemic factors (i.e., factors other than reasons, evidence or reliability). The fact that subjects can be influenced in these often surprising ways has important implications for areas where ordinary judgments about knowledge play important theoretical or practical roles (e.g., traditional epistemological debates, debates about the rationality of religious belief, jury deliberations).
Research at the Experimental Epistemology Research Group is supported by:
A one-year research grant from the Cognition, Religion and Theology Project at the University of Oxford's Centre for Anthropology & Mind (funding provided by the John Templeton Foundation)
An annual faculty research grant from The Baldy Center for Law & Social Policy at the University at Buffalo