Knowledge attribution, socioeconomic status, and education: new results using the Great British Class Survey

This paper presents new evidence on the impact of socioeconomic status (SES) and education on knowledge attribution. I examine a variety of cases, including vignettes where agents have been Gettiered, have false beliefs, and possess knowledge (according to orthodoxy). Early work investigated whether SES might be associated with knowledge attribution (Weinberg et al. in Philos Top 29(1–2):429–460, 2001; Seyedsayamdost in Episteme 12(1):95–116, 2014). But these studies used college education as a dummy variable for SES. I use the recently developed Great British Class Survey (Savage et al. in Sociology 47(2):219–250, 2013) to measure SES. The paper reports evidence against an association between SES and patterns of knowledge ascription, and reports mixed evidence about education effects.

Dress Nicer = Know More? Young Children’s Knowledge Attribution and Selective Learning Based on How Others Dress

This research explored whether children judge the knowledge state of others and selectively learn novel information from them based on how they dress. The results indicated that 4- and 6-year-olds identified a formally dressed individual as more knowledgeable about new things in general than a casually dressed one (Study 1). Moreover, children displayed an overall preference to seek help from a formally dressed individual rather than a casually dressed one when learning about novel objects and animals (Study 2). These findings are discussed in relation to the halo effect, and may have important implications for child educators regarding how instructor dress might influence young students’ knowledge attribution and learning preferences.

Dress Nicer = Know More? Young Children’s Knowledge Attribution and Selective Learning Based on How Others Dress

This research explored whether children judge the knowledge state of others and selectively learn novel information from them based on how they dress. The results indicated that 4- and 6-year-olds identified a formally dressed individual as more knowledgeable about new things in general than a casually dressed one (Study 1). Moreover, children displayed an overall preference to seek help from a formally dressed individual rather than a casually dressed one when learning about novel objects and animals (Study 2). These findings are discussed in relation to the halo effect, and may have important implications for child educators regarding how instructor dress might influence young students’ knowledge attribution and learning preferences.

Knowledge and the Brain: Why the Knowledge-Centric Theory of Mind Program Needs Neuroscience

The knowledge-centric Theory of Mind research program suggested by Phillips et al. stands to gain significant value by embracing a neurocognitive approach that takes full advantage of techniques like fMRI and EEG. This neurocognitive approach has already begun providing important insights into the mechanisms of knowledge attribution, insights which support the claim that it is more basic than belief attribution.

Insights into the uniquely human origins of understanding other minds

We summarize research and theory to show that, from early in human ontogeny, much information about other minds can be gleaned from reading the eyes. This analysis suggests that eyes serve as uniquely human windows into other minds, which critically extends the target article by drawing attention to what might be considered the neurodevelopmental origins of knowledge attribution in humans.

Why is knowledge faster than (true) belief?

Phillips and colleagues convincingly argue that knowledge attribution is a faster, more automatic form of mindreading than belief attribution. However, they do not explain what it is about knowledge attribution that lends it this cognitive advantage. I suggest an explanation of the knowledge-attribution advantage that would also help to distinguish it from belief-based and minimalist alternatives.

Ascent and fallacy of semantic descent

A substantial share of recent semantic and epistemological debates is focused on the description and analysis of ways to defend the thesis that changes in truth conditions of knowledge claims enfold on the back of subjective parameters. The broad popularity of this thesis - which runs contrary to the notion that variation in truth value is independent of informal factors - is a result of the belief that it offers a sustainable methodological framework for responding to the skeptic?s doubts. This paper begins by sketching the key points which serve to illustrate the nature of this antiskeptical strategy. Further on, the paper describes three problems the strategy faces, as well as attempts to address them by articulating a meta-linguistical thesis on truth conditions of knowledge attribution sentences. The aim of the paper is to reconstruct the project of the meta-linguistical analysis, point to its specifics and flaws, and answer the question of what it achieves.

Digitale Wissensorganisation

The thesis investigates the attribution of knowledge in the use of autonomous systems in enterprises. It analyzes the challenges posed by digitization and artificial intelligence to the practical topic in contractual and non-contractual relationships, when information is increasingly processed by algorithms instead of humans. Using an environmentally sensitive legal approach, it develops an innovation-open concept of knowledge attribution for the 21st century. In doing so, the work is practice-oriented and focuses on the areas of application of autonomous systems in enterprises: information acquisition and evaluation, decision making, and decision and decision implementation.