Karyn Freedman
Associate Professor & Graduate Coordinator
karynf@uoguelph.ca
MCKN Rm:354
519-824-4120 x53232

Degrees

B.A., University of Manitoba
M.A., University of Manitoba
Ph.D., University of Toronto

Areas of Teaching and Research

Epistemology, Feminist Philosophy and Philosophy of Science

My main research interests are epistemological. In particular, I am concerned with questions about the nature of justification and the idea of epistemic responsibility. Most recently, I have been developing a theory of justification that is a modified version of evidentialism in which the normative status of a belief is determined by two factors: the evidence in favor of the belief and the epistemic risk to the believer. I have been testing out this theory in a couple of new papers on the epistemology of testimony and the epistemology of disagreement.

Selected Publications

• "Diversity and the Fate of Objectivity," Social Epistemology, Vol.23, No.1 45-56, 2009.
• "Traumatic Blocking and Brandom's Oversight ,” Philosophy, Psychiatry, and Psychology, Vol. 14, No.1, 1-13, 2007.
• "Knowledge Without Citable Reasons ,” Philosophy, Psychiatry, and Psychology, Vol. 14, No.1, 25-28, 2007.
• "Normative Naturalism and Epistemic Relativism,”International Studies Philosophy of Science, Vol. 20, No.3, 309-322, 2006.
  
• "Disquotationalism, Truth and Justification: The Pragmatist's Wrong Turn ,” Canadian Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 36, No. 3, 371-386, 2006.
• "The Epistemological Significance of Psychic Trauma ," Hypatia, Vol. 21.2, 104-125, 2005.
• "Naturalized epistemology, or what the Strong Programme can't explain ,” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, Vol. 36, 135-148, 2005.
• "Laudan's Naturalistic Axiology ,” Philosophy of Science, Supplement to Vol. 66, 526-537, 1999.