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Emerging digital technologies: Implications for extended conceptions of cognition and knowledge

Emerging digital technologies: Implications for extended conceptions of cognition and knowledge
Emerging digital technologies: Implications for extended conceptions of cognition and knowledge

This chapter explores the cognitive and epistemic implications of emerging digital technologies from the standpoint of two philosophical positions: active externalism and virtue reliabilism. Emerging digital technologies (especially those associated with the Internet and World Wide Web) are important because they help to highlight issues that are not so easily revealed by the rather mundane and technologically low-grade examples favored by the philosophical community. The present analysis suggests that the general thrust of technology design is largely consistent with the criteria that have been used to evaluate putative cases of cognitive extension. In addition, the present analysis suggests that active externalism and virtue reliabilism are broadly compatible when it comes to the notion of extended knowledge. Despite this, a consideration of both the properties of emerging digital technologies and the requirements for extended knowledge reveals something of an unexpected tension between our prospective status as extended cognizers and extended knowers.

epistemology, world wide web, web science, extended cognition, extended mind, linked data, semantic web, metacognition, virtue epistemology, trust, technology, augmented reality, personalization, wearable technology, cloud computing, extended knowledge, active externalism
266-304
Oxford University Press
Smart, Paul
cd8a3dbf-d963-4009-80fb-76ecc93579df
Carter, J. Adam
Clark, Andy
Kallestrup, Jesper
Palermos, S. Orestis
Pritchard, Duncan
Smart, Paul
cd8a3dbf-d963-4009-80fb-76ecc93579df
Carter, J. Adam
Clark, Andy
Kallestrup, Jesper
Palermos, S. Orestis
Pritchard, Duncan

Smart, Paul (2018) Emerging digital technologies: Implications for extended conceptions of cognition and knowledge. In, Carter, J. Adam, Clark, Andy, Kallestrup, Jesper, Palermos, S. Orestis and Pritchard, Duncan (eds.) Extended Epistemology. Oxford. Oxford University Press, pp. 266-304. (doi:10.1093/oso/9780198769811.003.0015).

Record type: Book Section

Abstract

This chapter explores the cognitive and epistemic implications of emerging digital technologies from the standpoint of two philosophical positions: active externalism and virtue reliabilism. Emerging digital technologies (especially those associated with the Internet and World Wide Web) are important because they help to highlight issues that are not so easily revealed by the rather mundane and technologically low-grade examples favored by the philosophical community. The present analysis suggests that the general thrust of technology design is largely consistent with the criteria that have been used to evaluate putative cases of cognitive extension. In addition, the present analysis suggests that active externalism and virtue reliabilism are broadly compatible when it comes to the notion of extended knowledge. Despite this, a consideration of both the properties of emerging digital technologies and the requirements for extended knowledge reveals something of an unexpected tension between our prospective status as extended cognizers and extended knowers.

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Emerging Digital Technologies - Accepted Manuscript
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Accepted/In Press date: 13 November 2017
e-pub ahead of print date: June 2018
Published date: 2018
Keywords: epistemology, world wide web, web science, extended cognition, extended mind, linked data, semantic web, metacognition, virtue epistemology, trust, technology, augmented reality, personalization, wearable technology, cloud computing, extended knowledge, active externalism
Organisations: Web & Internet Science

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 379969
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/379969
PURE UUID: 6505d74b-81ec-4679-a9c7-e935264b7724
ORCID for Paul Smart: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-9989-5307

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Date deposited: 03 Aug 2015 08:50
Last modified: 13 Sep 2024 01:39

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Contributors

Author: Paul Smart ORCID iD
Editor: J. Adam Carter
Editor: Andy Clark
Editor: Jesper Kallestrup
Editor: S. Orestis Palermos
Editor: Duncan Pritchard

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