[Vdp] APSE Talk Series - Natalie Ashton - 27.3. - Creating a Strong Foundation for Neurodiverse Epistemology

Dear all, we are delighted to invite you all to the next installment of the APSE talks series organized by the Applied Philosophy of Science and Epistemology Unit at the Department of Philosophy, and to the accompanying reading cycle. The lecture will be given by Natalie Alana Ashton, University of Sterling. When: Thursday, 27.3.2025, 15:00 - 17:00 Where: HS 3A, NIG (Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Wien) Creating a Strong Foundation for Neurodiverse Epistemology Autistic people have had unprecedented success building effective epistemic communities online. A detailed analysis of the conditions and practices which produced and sustain these communities would be illuminating for both the epistemology of social media and the emerging area of neurodiverse epistemology. However, epistemology has only recently begun to theorise about marginalised groups, and many of its foundational principles are ill-suited to this work. In this talk I'll outline a planned project to develop a novel approach to neurodiverse epistemology, which challenges some of the fundamental assumptions of the early, exploratory literature, and lays the groundwork for a participatory methodology which can do real justice to neurodiverse communities. Speaker Bio: Natalie Alana Ashton works on the political and social aspects of epistemology, and is interested in how oppression and power effect political deliberation in the online sphere. In the past she has focused on theoretical issues (exploring how to integrate feminist standpoint theory and hinge epistemology, whether these views should be understood as relativist, and what that means). Her current work is on the practical applications of such views: what they tell us about social media legislation, platform design, and online communities. As usual, at 13:00 on the day of the talk, there will be a possibility to discuss some core readings of the talk with the APSE reading group. If you wish to obtain the papers, and to partake in the reading cycle, please contact vinzenz.fischer(a)univie.ac.at. Feel free to bring your lunch! We are also happy if you share this invitation with anyone who might be interested! Best wishes, Flora Löffelmann on behalf of the APSE unit -- Flora Löffelmann, MA MA University assistant & doctoral candidate Department of Philosophy at University of Vienna Pronouns: they/them (for more info see: https://www.mypronouns.org/what-and-why/) Happy about a gender neutral "hello"!