Professor Genia Schönbaumsfeld

• Wittgenstein
• Epistemology
• Kierkegaard
• Philosophy of Religion

Genia has just been awarded a high-profile 2.5m ERC Advanced Grant for her 5-year research project entitled 'The Ethics of Doubt - Kierkegaard, Scepticism and Conspiracy Theory'. Core aims of the project are:

To bring Kierkegaard’s existential epistemology into dialogue with the contemporary mainstream, in particular in respect to the relation between the intellectual vices, such as a lack of intellectual courage, and various forms of scepticism. Although virtue epistemology is currently a booming topic, the connection between intellectual courage and knowledge remains entirely unexplored, both within epistemology itself as well as in wider cultural debates.

To examine the similarities between radical scepticism (the thought that we may know nothing about the world) and global conspiracy theories. Since radical scepticism is taken very seriously in epistemology, while conspiracy theories tend to be dismissed, this raises the questions: If something is wrong with global conspiracy theories, is something equally wrong with radical scepticism? Conversely, if we cannot dismiss radical scepticism, can we similarly not dismiss global conspiracy theories?

To apply Kierkegaard’s insight that knowledge requires courage to a central challenge of our time: loss of faith in knowledge, expertise and authority. Never has such an investigation been more pressing than in the current pandemic, which has given rise to an unprecedented surge in conspiracy theories and ‘fake news’.

The project will deliver ground-breaking results along three dimensions: historical (Kierkegaard’s existential response to doubt), theoretical (the relation between intellectual vice and scepticism), and applied (the relation between intellectual courage and knowledge scepticism in the wider culture).