Normative Social Epistemology: Fuller vs. Goldman

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to discuss two normative versions of Social Epistemology (SE), whose initial approaches raised 25 years ago gave place to a new tradition. Revisiting the origin of each account one can find that their interest in normativity, despite their differences, tries to draw the attention of philosophical and social studies of science with the aim of analyzing their connections and provide them with a frame to take in their own inquiries of knowledge production the classical missions of epistemology. Yet, SE as a broader interdisciplinary project raises the question of the role of epistemology in our time. The paper is divided in three parts. In the first, we give an account of the emergence of these visions, after that, we review each one of them in more detail and, finally, we end up with a brief comment.