Dear all,

we warmly invite you to the next APSE (Applied Philosophy of Science and Epistemology) Talk and Reading Circle. The talk will be held by Natalie Alana Ashton (University of Sterling).

When: Thursday, 27.3.2025,13:00-15:00 reading circle, 15:00-17:00 Talk

Where: both in HS 3A, NIG (Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Wien)

Creating a Strong Foundation for Neurodiverse Epistemology

Autistic people have had unprecedented success building effective epistemic communities online. A detailed analysis of the conditions and
practices which produced and sustain these communities would be illuminating for both the epistemology of social media and the emerging
area of neurodiverse epistemology. However, epistemology has only recently begun to theorise about marginalised groups, and many of its
foundational principles are ill-suited to this work. In this talk I'll outline a planned project to develop a novel approach to neurodiverse
epistemology, which challenges some of the fundamental assumptions of the early, exploratory literature, and lays the groundwork for a
participatory methodology which can do real justice to neurodiverse communities.

Speaker Bio:
Natalie Alana Ashton works on the political and social aspects of epistemology, and is interested in how oppression and power effect
political deliberation in the online sphere. In the past she has focused on theoretical issues (exploring how to integrate feminist standpoint
theory and hinge epistemology, whether these views should be understood as relativist, and what that means). Her current work is on the practical applications of such views: what they tell us about social media legislation, platform design, and online communities.

Reading Circle (1-3 PM):

We will focus our discussion on an article by Natalie Ashton and a few
pages of an interim project report (attached pdf):

Ashton, N.A. (2020). Scientific Perspectives, Feminist Standpoints, and
Non-Silly Relativism. In: Crețu, AM., Massimi, M. (eds) Knowledge from
a Human Point of View. Synthese Library, vol 416. Springer, Cham.
https://doi-org.uaccess.univie.ac.at/10.1007/978-3-030-27041-4_5

Shaping Democracy in the Digital Age: Interim report of the 'Norms for
the New Public Sphere' project. (Pages 3-6 and 20-22)
Link:
https://newpublicsphere.stir.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/NNPS-Report-Full-Report-V6-2.pdf


As introduction to Natalie Ashtons approach, we suggest this short
article:

Ashton, N.A. (2021). Why Twitter is (Epistemically) Better Than
Facebook. _Open For Debate. _Link:
https://blogs.cardiff.ac.uk/openfordebate/why-twitter-is-epistemically-better-than-facebook/


As introduction to definitions of Neurodiversity, we suggest the
introduction of this book:

Chapman, R. (2023). _Empire of Normality: Neurodiversity and Capitalism_
(1st ed.). Pluto Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.8501594

For further reading regarding the topic:

Medina, J. (2013). _The epistemology of resistance : gender and racial
oppression, epistemic injustice, and resistant imaginations_. Oxford
University Press.

Ashton, N. (2019). Relativising epistemic advantage. In _The Routledge
Handbook of Philosophy of Relativism_ (pp. 329-338). Routledge.

Anderson, E. (1995). Feminist Epistemology: An Interpretation and a
Defense. _Hypatia_, _10_(3), 50-84.
doi:10.1111/j.1527-2001.1995.tb00737.x  

Please send a quick message to vinzenz.fischer@univie.ac.at if you are
planning to attend the Reading Cycle!
Feel free to bring your lunch!

Feel free to share this invitation with anyone who might be interested!

Best wishes,
Vinzenz Fischer and Flora Löffelmann on behalf of the APSE Unit

---
Flora Löffelmann, MA MA  
University assistant & doctoral candidate  
Department of Philosophy at University of Vienna

Pronouns: they/them (for more info see: https://www.mypronouns.org/what-and-why/)
Happy about a gender neutral "hello"!