This book is a journey of in-depth exploration into the social dimensions of understanding. As human beings, we strive to understand the world around us. The path to understanding, however, is rarely walked alone; we walk the path with others. We understand more together, by joining forces, than we would understand alone. When we understand something and come to see things clearly, it is probably because someone else has taught us, enlightened us, shared his or her perspective with us, or shaped our environment so that our attempts to make sense of the world were likely to succeed. Understanding, then, is a social rather than an individual achievement. The book will be of great interest to philosophers working in epistemology, philosophy of science, and the philosophy of education.

The first book to provide a thorough exploration of the social dimension of understanding Shows how we understand more together than we would do alone Teaches the reader what it means to understand something

Autorentext

Federica I. Malfatti is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Christian Philosophy at the University of Innsbruck. Her research interests include general epistemology, social epistemology, and the philosophy of science. She has worked extensively on the nature of understanding, in science and beyond, and on the social and collective dimensions of understanding. Her work on understanding has been published in prominent peer-reviewed journals, such as Erkenntnis, Philosophical Issues (Noûs Supplement) and Philosophical Studies. She is the author of the book ‘Verstehen verstehen’, published by the Schwabe Verlag (Berlin/Bern) in 2023. Her most recent work deals with the epistemology of AI and the philosophy of trust.

Inhalt

1 The Way Ahead.- 2 Understanding Phenomena: A Tentative Model.- 3 Knowledge, Understanding, and Credit Attributions.- 4 Understanding and Testimony: Transmission.- 5 Understanding and Testimony: Generation.- 6 Towards Collective Understanding.- 7 Understanding and Education.