实践中的独立性论题:如何理解群体认知成功

The Independence Thesis in Practice:How to Explain Group Epistemic Success

社会认识论的一个重要经验是由两部分内容构成的“独立性论题”:群体可能是非理性的,尽管其每一成员都是理性的;群体也可能是理性的,尽管其成员都是非理性的。我们强烈建议将合作合理化方面的研究视为一个范例,进而对现实世界中涉及论题中第二部分内容的分析提出质疑。我们集中讨论了这类分析的一个突出例子:信息层叠,并论证说明它可以富有成效地概念重构为认知合作的一个实例。这一新视角为改进对这一重要情景的解释和理解指明了方向。

An important lesson from social epistemology is the two-part“independence the-sis”:groups may be inrational despite each member being rational,and groups may be rational although their members are irrational.We urge skepticism regarding real-world analyses of the second type,using the research on rationalizing cooperation as a paradigmatic example.We discuss a prominent example of such analysis-information cascades-and argue that it can be fnuifully re-conceptualized as an instance of epistemic cooperation.This new perspective points the way towards improved explanation and understanding of this important scenario.