Ida Cordelia Beam Distinguished Visiting Professor of Philosophy, Sanford Goldberg, will deliver a public lecture, “Thinking for Oneself: Testimony, Epistemic Dependence, and the Aims of Education,” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 11, in Room 107 in the English-Philosophy Building on the University of Iowa campus.

The process of education, and in particular that involving very young children, often involves students’ taking their teachers’ word on a good many things. At the same time, good education at every level ought to inculcate, develop, and support students’ abilities to think for themselves. While these two features of education—its heavy reliance on testimony, and its central aim of getting others to think for themselves—need not be regarded as contradictory, it is not clear how they relate to one another. Goldberg argues that people reconcile these doctrines by replacing a broadly Cartesian, individualist conception of "thinking for oneself" with an alternative conception—one that recognizes the nature and depth of our dependence on others for a good deal of what we know.

Goldberg is chair of the Philosophy Department at Northwestern University in Chicago. He has published extensively in epistemology and the philosophy of mind and language. In his most recent book, Relying on Others, Goldberg examines the contribution of one’s social environment to justification and knowledge.

He writes, "We rely heavily on the testimony of others in our daily conversations, through traditional media (newsprint, radio, TV), the internet and various digital medias, and in educational contexts where we learn from teachers and books. But what is the nature of this reliance on others? Do testifiers simply provide us with more evidence or data, on a par with data provided by ordinary observation? Or is there a deeper, more significant dependence at work here?"

Goldberg argues for the intriguing thesis that a believer’s justification depends essentially on social factors, and that part of people's justification for believing another’s testimony often resides in the mind/brain of the testifier.

For more information, contact Ali Hasan at ali-hasan@uiowa.edu or 319-331-6707.

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all UI-sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires an accommodation in order to participate in this program, contact Kristine Bevelacqua in the Department of Philosophy office at 319-335-0178 or kristine-bevelacqua@uiowa.edu.