The social epistemology of Facebook

Date of Publication

2023

Document Type

Bachelor's Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts Major in Philosophy

Subject Categories

Philosophy

College

College of Liberal Arts

Department/Unit

Philosophy

Thesis Advisor

Mark Anthony L. Dacela

Defense Panel Member

Robert James M. Boyles
Napoleon M. Mabaquiao, Jr.
Elenita D. Garcia

Abstract/Summary

This paper is an epistemic evaluation of the currently emerging news platform and communication market on the Internet, Facebook. The platform is initially curated for people to interact with each other by creating their content shared via posts and is accessed by other users, allowing them to repost it. It also lets its users freely express themselves since all have the same opportunity to post whatever they want on the platform. As Facebook becomes a sphere of interaction on specific socio-political issues, spreading inaccurate information is a problem the platform needs to address. This happens as users engage in the activity of ‘personalization,’ which allows them to control the content they see according to their interests. With that, the paper addresses one central question: whether Facebook is a reliable source of information for its users’ belief and knowledge formation. Given this, the framework of this study would be Goldman’s veritistic social epistemology (VSE), which assesses democratic practices—such as ‘personalization’—of an institution or a system based on their contributions to knowledge or error. I then claim that Facebook is an unreliable tool for acquiring knowledge, especially if treated as a primary source of information. As such, I argue that Facebook as a digital public sphere would be susceptible to the dangers of ‘personalization’ on the Internet and would lead to the public sphere being an echo chamber, yielding inaccurate information and causing group polarization. The objects of epistemic evaluation of Facebook would be its News Feed and community standard features. Furthermore, I will use the following truth-linked or veritistic standards for evaluating Facebook: reliability, power, fecundity, speed, and efficiency.

Abstract Format

html

Language

English

Format

Electronic

Keywords

Social epistemology; Epistemics; Facebook (Electronic resource)

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Embargo Period

4-27-2023

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