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On the Limitations and Criticism of Experimental Philosophy

Bach, Theodore (2022) On the Limitations and Criticism of Experimental Philosophy. [Preprint]

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Abstract

Experimental philosophy involves subjecting philosophical methods and judgments to empirical scrutiny. I begin by exploring conceptual, confirmational, and empirical factors that limit the significance of experiment-based and survey-based approaches to the evaluation of philosophical epistemic activities. I then consider specific criticisms of experimental philosophy: its experimental conditions lack ecological validity; it wrongly assumes that philosophers rely on psychologized data; it overlooks the reflective and social elements of philosophical case analysis; it misconstrues the importance of both procedural and evaluative forms of philosophical expertise; it incorrectly views psychological bias as incompatible with reliability; and it generalizes to a global, self-defeating skepticism about case judgment. I explain why these criticisms should be understood as converging and interdependent. I also set out a three-level model of philosophical case judgment that frames the criticisms.


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Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Bach, Theodoretheodorebach@gmail.com
Additional Information: To appear in: M. Bauer & S. Kornmesser (Eds.), The Compact Compendium of Experimental Philosophy. Berlin: de Gruyter
Keywords: Experimental Philosophy ; Critiques of Experimental Philosophy ; Expertise ; Metaphilosophy ; Intuition ; Expertise Defense ; Thought experiment ; Philosophical Method ; Verificationism
Subjects: General Issues > Confirmation/Induction
General Issues > Evidence
General Issues > Experimentation
Specific Sciences > Psychology > Judgment and Decision Making
General Issues > Thought Experiments
Depositing User: Theodore Bach
Date Deposited: 28 Jun 2022 22:51
Last Modified: 28 Jun 2022 22:51
Item ID: 20818
Subjects: General Issues > Confirmation/Induction
General Issues > Evidence
General Issues > Experimentation
Specific Sciences > Psychology > Judgment and Decision Making
General Issues > Thought Experiments
Date: 2022
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/20818

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