This is the branch of epistemology that deals with knowledge in the context of social relationships among knowers. It emphasizes the various ways in which our knowledge embodies different kinds of social dimensions, and different kinds of social dimensions.
In general, epistemology is concerned with abstract and broad topics, and deals with individual knowers; it doesn’t tend to touch on any dimensions of social context that might actually bear on knowers and situate them in the real world.
Some examples of issues in social epistemology =
- epistemology of testimony = testimony by nature is a social means of producing knowledge and it involves the interaction of different individuals, and the transmission of information across them.
- epistemology of collective agents = institutions like scientific communities or courts of law are social settings that involve the acquisition and communication of knowledge
- how does the justification of judgements in such communities relate to the justification of individuals’ judgement? In epistemic terms, how do individuals relate to communities?
- what kinds of institutional structure facilitate the production of knowledge and what kinds of structures systematically inhibit justification?
Another social approach to epistemology involves the insight that knowers are by nature socially situated. This approach acknowledges that knowledge acquisition always takes place in a social environment and individuals are situated differently in that environment. This can lead to relatively privileged or marginalized positions within the environment.
Possible ways to assess the nature of social positioning with respect to knowledge =
- since knowledge is objective, social positioning should be overcome. The objectivity of knowledge is hampered when the acquisition of knowledge bears the traces of social positioning
- social situatedness of knowers leads to a diversity of perspectives that can be an asset to the practices through which we acquire or produce knowledge
Feminist-epistemology is an approach to epistemology that acknowledges the specifics of women’s social contextualization. It seeks to show how the exclusion of women’s perspectives has impoverished traditional conceptions of knowledge, and how, in turn, the incorporation of women’s perspectives can improve our knowledge-seeking practices.
Mills-on-alternative-epistemology is a more radical step and is associated with the social positioning of socially subordinated groups.