Call: “Folk Epistemology”

Mirko Farina, Artur Karimov, Anna Sakharova, Mikhail Khort, Daniel Lavrishchev, Vladislav Stasenko, and Natalia Khairullina are organizing a conference on “Folk Epistemology – Exploring Everyday Conceptions of Knowledge,” which will take place at the Kazan Federal University from October 24 to 25. The conference will be hybrid, featuring a dedicated online section in English.

Abstracts for presentations can be submitted until October 10. The call reads:

What is knowledge? Philosophers have long sought answers to this fundamental question within the confines of their studies. Yet contemporary epistemology faces a profound challenge: How universal and adequate are the intuitions underlying theories derived from “armchair” conceptual analysis? This challenge has emerged alongside intensive research into folk epistemology – the study of ordinary people’s conceptions of knowledge, truth, justification, reliability, and other epistemic categories. Data from experimental philosophy (x-phi) reveal that what seems obvious and universal to the armchair philosopher may vary significantly across cultural, social, linguistic, or educational contexts. Does this call into question the possibility of a unified theory of knowledge? Are folk intuitions a reliable test for the adequacy of philosophical concepts their inevitable foundation (as x-phi advocates argue) – or merely “empirical noise” unrelated to epistemology’s inherently normative aims?

Conference Goals

This conference aims to create a platform for critical and constructive discussion on the role of folk epistemic conceptions and intuitions in modern philosophy. Participants are invited to address the following key questions:

• Conceptualizing Folk Epistemology: What are its boundaries? How is it manifested in language (epistemic modalities, knowledge verbs), social and cognitive practices (distribution of epistemic authority, source credibility, non-expert assessments of justification reliability)? How can we account for pragmatic and moral “encroachments” in knowledge descriptions?
• Relevance of Folk Conceptions for Philosophical Theory: Should epistemological theories explicitly incorporate, refute, or methodologically disregard data on folk conceptions? What are their heuristic values and limitations?
• Critical Analysis of X-Phi Methodology in Epistemology: How can empirical data enrich philosophical reflection? What are the limitations of experimental approaches in clarifying normative questions? How does variability in intuitions impact debates about epistemic universalism, contextualism, or relativism?
• Applied Potential of X-Phi Data: How can research on folk epistemology (especially cross-cultural variations in epistemic conceptions) inform practical applications? How might this data improve AI systems (e.g., model training, dialogue agent design) and optimize human-AI interaction (e.g., fostering epistemic trust in intelligent assistants)?

Call for Interdisciplinary Dialogue

We aim to transcend disciplinary boundaries and welcome contributions from all scholars engaged in folk epistemology research. In addition to papers on the above themes, we particularly encourage:

• Presentations of empirical/experimental studies on epistemic conceptions and intuitions by philosophers, psychologists, anthropologists, sociologists, and linguists.
• Proposals for planned empirical research (experiments, surveys, linguistic analyses, etc.), including hypotheses, designs, and methodologies.

This segment will foster discussion on methodological challenges, brainstorming for refining x-phi tools, and exploring collaborative opportunities.

Submission Guidelines

To participate, please:

• Complete the registration form: https://forms.gle/rCu72uaTJwc8GQZx6
• Include your full name, contact email, presentation title, and abstract (100–250 words).
• If you have any difficulties filling out this form or have any questions about the conference, please contact [email protected] (Mikhail Khort).

Deadline: October 10, 2025.

Updates & Information

The conference schedule, detailed announcements, and additional information will be available via: Telegram Channel: https://t.me/kznphil

#ArtificialIntelligence #CrossCulturalResearch #FolkEpistemology #Intuition #Justification #Knowledge #Reliability #Truth

Excellent paper that I missed back in 2021.

Bosson et al. (over 100 authors), #PecariousManhood in 62 nations. N > 33,000. This is some great stuff.

https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022121997997

#crossculturalresearch #research #psychology #genderroles #FragileMasculinity

The "One, but not the same" results that we detected in English speakers (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-021-01739-5) replicated 6 times in Lithuanian speakers (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105545).

When people read about morally altered people being "different, they [thought] the person [wa]s qualitatively transformed, but numerically intact."

#ExperimentalPhilosophy #xPhi #Philosophy #PhilMind #PersonalIdentity #QuantPsych #DecisionScience #CogSci #psychometrics #Linguistics #CrossCulturalResearch 

The introduction to Review of #Philosophy and #Psychology’s issue on "Cultural Variation and #Cognition" is out!

Machery, Knobe, and Stich introduce "Great Minds Do Not Think Alike:..." (https://doi.org/10.1007/s13164-022-00628-y) and 15 other theoretical, methodological, or empirical papers about the import of demographic differences for philosophical psychology.

Short and sweet (< 10 pages): https://doi.org/10.1007/s13164-023-00687-9

#Culture #CrossCulturalResearch #CogSci #xPhi

The Illusion of Generalizability

"Although the project recruited 171 researchers from 109 institutions, and 13629 research participants speaking 40 languages across 61 countries, we argue that relying solely on the typical big team methodology created an "illusion of generalizability", leading authors to overestimate the extent to which research findings can be applied globally."

Preprint: https://psyarxiv.com/avcsp/

🦣 Authors: @psforscher, @hcp4715

#MetaScience
#CrossCulturalResearch
#ManyLabs