TPA

  Tennessee Philosophical Association

53rd Annual Meeting: Oct. 28-29, 2022
Vanderbilt University 

 Keynote Speaker-

Gordon Hull, UNC Charlotte

How Epistemic Injustice can help us understand problems in AI

 Abstract. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) systems increasingly purport to deliver knowledge about people and the world.  Unfortunately, they also seem to frequently present results that repeat or magnify biased treatment of racial and other vulnerable minorities.  This paper proposes that at least some of the problems with AI’s treatment of minorities can be captured by the concept of epistemic injustice.  To substantiate this claim, I argue that (1) pretrial detention and physiognomic AI systems commit testimonial injustice because their target variables reflect inaccurate and unjust proxies for what they claim to measure; (2) classification systems, such as facial recognition, commit hermeneutic injustice because their classification taxonomies, almost no matter how they are derived, reflect and perpetuate racial and other stereotypes; and (3) epistemic injustice better explains what is going wrong in these types of situations than does the more common focus on procedural (un)fairness.

Friday, 7:30 P.M., 114 Furman Hall, followed by a spirited reception

 

 

Sessions: Saturday, Furman Hall

9:00 am through 4:40 pm

9:00-9:55 a.m.

Author Meets Critics – The Politics of Black Joy
Lindsey Stewart, The University of Memphis
Comments by Tempest Henning, Fisk University; Lucius Outlaw, Vanderbilt University; Tiffany Patterson, Vanderbilt University
Furman 007

Social-Epistemic Problems with Intellectual Grandstanding
Lucy Vollbrecht, Vanderbilt University
Commentator: Zach Auwerda, The University of Memphis
Furman 209

The Escaped Prisoner’s Story
Charles Cardwell, Pellissippi State Community College
Commentator: Courtland D. Lewis, Pellissippi State Community College
Furman 109

Living and Gaming—Experimenting with Nguyen’s Account of Agency
Wangchen Zhou, Vanderbilt University
Commentator: Ryan Gabriel Windeknecht, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Furman 217

10:05-11:00 a.m.

Author Meets Critics – The Politics of Black Joy (continued)
Lindsey Stewart, The University of Memphis
Comments by Tempest Henning, Fisk University; Lucius Outlaw, Vanderbilt University; Tiffany Patterson, Vanderbilt University
Furman 007

Humean Collective Identity
Zachary Auwerda, The University of Memphis
Commentator: Jim Fieser, The University of Tennessee at Martin
Furman 209

Disagreement over the Beautiful Grounded in the Ethical
Jennifer Lowell Vanderbilt University
Commentator: Qingyang Cui, Vanderbilt University
Furman 109

Secularistic But Not Secular? An Analysis of the Philosophy of William Connolly
Bill Meyer, Maryville College
James Phil Oliver, Middle Tennessee State University
Furman 217

LISTEN

Pluralizing Migrant Psychology: A Non-Homogenous View of Selfhood Across Borders
Ashleigh Morales, The University of Memphis
Commentator: tba
Furman 132

11:05-11:10 a.m.

Business Meeting:  Elections for President and Secretary; Furman 109

11:15-1:05 p.m.

Lunch:  On your own (see insert in conference packet for local eateries)

1:10-2:05 p.m.

Collateral Damage: Black Ideologies Formed Post-Enslavement
Natalyah Davis, The University of Memphis
Commentator: tba
Furman 007

Always Look on the Bright Side of Crisis
Courtland D. Lewis, Pellissippi State Community College
Commentator: Kelly Cunningham, Vanderbilt University
Furman 209 

Metaphysical Infinitism and Theoretical Virtue
William Welchance, University of Virginia
Commentator: John Stigall, Howard University
Furman 109

The Private Servant of the Public as a Privately Educated Public Servant: Foucault and Habermas on the Role of the Public Intellectual
Bernardo Alba, The University of Memphis
Commentator: Bill Meyer, Maryville College
Furman 217

2:15-3:10 p.m.

Nature’s Revenge? On the Coronavirus and Natural Evil
Daniel J. Smith, The University of Memphis
Commentator: Emanuele Costa, Vanderbilt University
Furman 007

Fallacy Accusation and Meta-Argument
Scott Aikin, Vanderbilt University
Commentator: William Welchance, University of Virginia
Furman 209

The Ascetic Ideal, the Threat of Nihilism, and How to Transcend
Qiuyue Chen, The University of Memphis
Commentator: Bernardo Alba, The University of Memphis
Furman 109

Revitalising Baier: Trust Beyond Beliefs & Attitudes
Kelly Cunningham, Vanderbilt University
Commentator: Cheri Thomas, University of Tennessee, Southern
Furman 217

3:25pm-4:20pm

Author Meets Critics – Sextus, Montaigne, Hume: Pyrrhonizers
Brian Ribeiro, University of Tennessee-Chattanooga
Comments by Lucy Alsip Vollbrecht, Vanderbilt; Andrew Cling, University of Alabama-Huntsville; Scott Aikin, Vanderbilt
Furman 209

Author Meets Critics – Aristotle’s Vices
Audrey Anton, Western Kentucky University
Comments by Dan Larkin, Georgia Southern University; Alyssa Lowery, Vanderbilt University; Andrew Burnside, Vanderbilt University
Furman 217