Xenoepistemologies

A Theory of Knowledge After Human Surveyability
Erscheinungsjahr 2027
ISBN: 978-3-032-44369-4
Verlag: Springer

Buch, Englisch, 240 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm

Reihe: Studies in Applied Philosophy, Epistemology and Rational Ethics

This book develops xenoepistemology, a new framework for understanding knowledge produced by systems whose operations exceed individual human surveyability. Automated theorem provers, protein-structure predictors, self-driving laboratories, large-scale simulations, and multimodal AI systems do more than accelerate scientific practice: they transform the conditions under which evidence, explanation, discovery, expertise, and trust are established. The book argues that epistemic legitimacy can no longer depend exclusively on human belief, understanding, or semantic access. Instead, knowledge produced within human-machine systems can be assessed through structural criteria such as reliability, robustness, counterfactual sensitivity, transfer across contexts, and independent validation. The relevant unit of epistemic analysis therefore shifts from the individual knower to the wider epistemic ecology in which humans, machines, institutions, infrastructures, and validation practices interact. Drawing on cases from mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, climate science, astronomy, the social sciences, and the digital humanities, the book examines how artificial cognition is reorganizing disciplinary boundaries and scientific expertise. It introduces concepts including the meta-specialist, xenoepistemic proxemics, and the recognition regress, while also addressing peer review, authorship, patent law, platformized knowledge, and the concentration of epistemic infrastructure.The position defended is post-anthropocentric but not anti-human: human understanding remains indispensable in many contexts, but it is no longer the sole gatekeeper of epistemic legitimacy.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Vallverdú, Jordi

Fachgebiete

• Rechtswissenschaften Wirtschaftsrecht Medienrecht
• Mathematik | Informatik EDV | Informatik Informatik Künstliche Intelligenz
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Wissenschaftstheorie, Wissenschaftsphilosophie
• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Medienwissenschaften Medienphilosophie, Medienethik, Medienrecht

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction: Knowledge After the Human Center.- Knowledge After Anthropocentrism.- From Kuhn, Lakatos, and Feyerabend to Xenoepistemology.- What Is Xenoepistemology?.- Objections to Xenoepistemology.- Opacity, Trust, and Validation.- Embodiment: De-Anthropomorphized, Not Disembodied.- Proxemics as Epistemological Method.- Domain Anchors I: Mathematics and the Sciences of Structure.- Agentic Science and the Automated Epistemic Loop.- Domain Anchors II: Social Sciences, Humanities, and the Limits of Xenoepistemology.- The Hassabis Effect: Doing Science from Outside the Discipline.- The Meta-Specialist as Epistemic Agent.- The Peer Review System Under Strain.- Authorship, Inventorship, and the Patent Case.- Privatized Knowledge and the Platformization of Epistemic Authority.- Meaning Beyond the Human Channel.- The Digital Humanities and the Reconfiguration of Cultural Inquiry.- The Recognition Regress and the Politics of Goalpost-Shifting.- The Research Agenda.

Über Autor(innen)

Jordi Vallverdú is Full Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. He holds a PhD in Philosophy, a master’s degree in the History of Science, and degrees in Philosophy and Music. His interdisciplinary research focuses on philosophy of science, epistemology, philosophy of computing and artificial intelligence, cognition, and the ethical and institutional implications of emerging technologies. His work examines how computational systems transform scientific reasoning, causal inference, knowledge production, human–machine interaction, and the criteria by which scientific outputs are validated.Professor Vallverdú has undertaken research stays at the Glaxo-Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, Harvard University, and Kyoto University, where he held a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science fellowship. He has authored or edited more than 150 academic publications and approximately twenty books. His previous Springer monographs include Bayesians Versus Frequentists: A Philosophical Debate on Statistical Reasoning (2016), Causality for Artificial Intelligence: From a Philosophical Perspective (2024), and Prompting Causal Events (2025). These works establish the intellectual background for Xenoepistemologies, which extends his research into a systematic theory of knowledge production, validation, responsibility, and trust in scientific environments increasingly shaped by artificial and hybrid epistemic systems.