Kingston Philosophy Café

Richard Baron will be giving this talk on Epistemic Respectability in History:-

Interesting history books do more than recite events. They explain what happened - for example why a war started, or why a country moved to democracy, or what lay behind the Industrial Revolution. But historians dispute the explanations offered by other historians, and there are no rigorous tests to determine who is right and who is wrong. Epistemic respectability is a quality that is meant to do some of the work of the quality of correctness. Historians can agree that other historians' theories are respectable, even if they think they are wrong. But respectability is still a tough enough regulator of standards to make sure that historians do not write nonsense.