Alex Worsnip
@aworsnip.bsky.social
1.2K followers 460 following 170 posts
Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Applied Epistemology Project at UNC Chapel Hill. Current work: rationality; political epistemology. Also baseball (Orioles), music nerd.
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aworsnip.bsky.social
Really excited about the lineup for this. Check out the full thread for details and for how to apply to be a respondent.
unc-aep.bsky.social
We're delighted to announce the fourth (and final!) Applied Epistemology Project workshop, on Applied Epistemology in Times of Political Crisis, here at UNC on March 6-7, 2025. (1/3)
Reposted by Alex Worsnip
unc-aep.bsky.social
AEP research getting out there! 👏👏👏
jeffgreene.bsky.social
Honored to co-present with Aditi Ahuja (her first academic conference presentation and she did great!) at the Humility in Inquiry conference. We presented data on factors affecting people’s willingness to defer to experts.
Me standing next to Aditi Ahuja who is speaking at a podium in front of an audience. There is a large projected slide behind us that says “Research Design.”
aworsnip.bsky.social
For anyone who has read my "Can Pragmatists Be Moderate?" paper, this is sort of a companion to it: it articulated a problem for pragmatic encroachment views, while this paper articulates a positive (non-encroaching) view that avoids those problems while doing a lot of what PE was designed to do.
aworsnip.bsky.social
(Kinda) new paper, with the fab Z Quanbeck, finally out @ Phil Imprint! We defend a combo of epistemic permissivism + limited pragmatism re reasons for belief. This preserves some features of pragmatic encroachment views while avoiding their drawbacks.
journals.publishing.umich.edu/phimp/articl...
A Permissivist Alternative to Encroachment
As a slew of recent work in epistemology has brought out, there are a range of cases where there's a strong temptation to say that prudential and (especially) moral considerations affect what we ought...
journals.publishing.umich.edu
aworsnip.bsky.social
For one year only, the 8th Chapel Hill Normativity Workshop will (paradoxically) be in Montreal! Keynote by Jane Friedman plus 7 talks selected via open CFA. As usual, accepted papers eligible for special issue of Phil Studies. Submissions due Oct 15th; more info at normativity.web.unc.edu
Chapel Hill Normativity Workshop
normativity.web.unc.edu
Reposted by Alex Worsnip
unc-aep.bsky.social
Very excited to share our third "explainer video". (Refresher: these are ~5 min animations introducing applied epistemology concepts for a wide audience.) This one's on epist of free speech, featuring a script by Rob Simpson! Please share & consider using in teaching!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMgb...
[AEP Explainers] The Epistemology of Free Speech (with Robert Simpson)
YouTube video by PPE at UNC
www.youtube.com
Reposted by Alex Worsnip
unc-aep.bsky.social
Reminder: tomorrow is the deadline to apply for this! It's a chance to get expert instruction in public writing on applied epistemology, feedback from peers, and to enjoy an in-person workshop here at UNC
unc-aep.bsky.social
Interested in writing applied epistemology for a public-facing audience? Apply to be part of our new working group! It'll meet four times over the summer, followed by a capstone in-person event here at UNC in September facilitated by Eleanor Gordon-Smith. Details here:
philevents.org/event/show/1...
Reposted by Alex Worsnip
annamariaaeder.bsky.social
🥁🎉It's time again! My colleague Thomas Grundmann is organising the Cologne Summer School in Philosophy. This year's star is @aworsnip.bsky.social (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill). 🎊📢
You can find more information on the following website: cssip.uni-koeln.de
Spread the word and repost!
aworsnip.bsky.social
The exciting AEP announcements just keep on coming! This is a really cool initiative being spearheaded by our summer 2025 RA Devin Lane--anyone interested in writing applied epistemology for a public audience should apply!
unc-aep.bsky.social
Interested in writing applied epistemology for a public-facing audience? Apply to be part of our new working group! It'll meet four times over the summer, followed by a capstone in-person event here at UNC in September facilitated by Eleanor Gordon-Smith. Details here:
philevents.org/event/show/1...
aworsnip.bsky.social
These explainer videos (produced and animated by the fantastic Ripley Stroud) are among my favorite things we're doing at the @unc-aep.bsky.social. The second one just came out, featuring Kevin Dorst on polarization. Please check it out and share widely!
unc-aep.bsky.social
Very excited to share our second "explainer video". (Refresher: these are ~5 min animations introducing applied epistemology concepts for a wide audience.) This one's on polarization, featuring a script by Kevin Dorst! Please share, consider using in teaching, etc!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9nd...
[AEP Explainers] Political Polarization (with Kevin Dorst)
YouTube video by PPE at UNC
www.youtube.com
Reposted by Alex Worsnip
stephantorre.bsky.social
In support of #philosophymatters, this fortnight I'll be highlighting things that don't matter that are not philosophy. First up: layovers.
Reposted by Alex Worsnip
unc-aep.bsky.social
Fascinating new post on our blog by Emily McWilliams, discussing the denial and undertreatment of women's pain in medical procedures through the lens of applied epistemological work on testimonial injustice, manufactured ignorance, and motivated reasoning:
aep.unc.edu/2025/03/17/t...
The Retrievals and the Routine: Systematic Erasure of Women’s Pain | The Applied Epistemology Project @ UNC
aep.unc.edu
Reposted by Alex Worsnip
ericklinenberg.bsky.social
One columnist, a professional pundit, is living in a paranoid delusion. The other, a sociologist, is living in America.
Reposted by Alex Worsnip
koenfucius.bsky.social
Is the unwillingness of deferring to experts really a serious societal pathology? Review by @aworsnip.bsky.social et al explores under exactly what conditions we ought to defer to experts, and under what conditions people are willing to defer to experts:
buff.ly/NXuDVSu
Reposted by Alex Worsnip
sampratt99.bsky.social
New Paper in Philosophical Psychology:

Trust in experts is low. Why? How bad is it? And what should we do? To answer these questions, we reviewed philosophy (when *ought* we defer to the experts) and psychology (when *do* people defer to the experts).

Link in comments!
aworsnip.bsky.social
Speedy work by @journalphp.bsky.social and their publishers--the published version of the paper is now available, open access (thanks to our grant!), here:
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
aworsnip.bsky.social
It doesn't prove that Alito's judgments are false, but it gives us reason to think they're unreliable, since the motivations aren't connected with the truth.
Reposted by Alex Worsnip
whstancil.bsky.social
The disease of the American political class is the inability to see, describe, or respond what is happening, when doing so would conflict with the speech norms of the American political class
aworsnip.bsky.social
I suspect Goodin's singular devotion to the journal is the key factor. If he's running it like JPP, I believe he's reading every submission & desk rejecting lots before they go further. That'll make things run v efficiently, but the downside is it puts a big burden (and a lot of power) on one person
aworsnip.bsky.social
Little bit of a preview of some of the arguments of the paper engaging with your work on this that I intend to eventually write up properly!