Dr. Cameron Boult

My research focuses on the intersection of epistemology, ethics, and meta-normative theory. I have worked on the nature of justified belief, radical scepticism, and epistemic anti-realism. I am especially interested in fundamental questions about the similarities and differences between epistemology and other normative disciplines, such as ethics, or aesthetics. More recently, I’ve been exploring questions about epistemic blame, testimonial injustice, and political ignorance (and the intersection of these topics).

I am a Research Associate at the African Centre for Epistemology and Philosophy of Science, University of Johannesburg.

​2022-2025: I am the principle investigator on a three-year SSHRC Insight Development Grant titled “Norms of Epistemic Criticism”. The project looks at normative questions about our practice of criticizing one another for epistemic failings.

2023-2025: I am a member of the Epistemic Reparations Global Working Group, funded by a Buffett Global Catalyst Grant. The co-leads of the project are Jennifer Lackey and Ben Frommer.

website 

Research

Books

Forthcoming. Epistemic Blame: The Nature and Norms of Epistemic Relationships, Oxford University Press. (April 2024)

Journal Articles

Forthcoming.  Epistemic Complicity, Episteme (SI: 18th Episteme Conference)

Forthcoming. Degrees of Epistemic Criticizability. The Philosophical Quarterly. (Online First)

Forthcoming. Pragmatism, Truth, and Cognitive Agency, Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy. (Online First).

2024. Epistemic Blame as Relationship Modification: Reply to Smartt, Philosophical Studies, 181: 387-396.

2023.  Access to Collective Epistemic Reasons: Reply to Mitova, Asian Journal of Philosophy, 2(60): 1-9. (Article Symposium: The Collective Epistemic Reasons of Social Identity Groups)

2023. The Significance of Epistemic Blame. Erkenntnis, 88(2): 807-828.

2021. Epistemic Blame. Philosophy Compass, 16(8):1-12.

2021. Standing to Epistemically Blame. Synthese, 199:11355-11375.

2021. The (Virtue) Epistemology of Political Ignorance, American Philosophical Quarterly, 58(3):217-232.

2020. There is a Distinctively Epistemic Kind of Blame, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. Online First.

2020. Epistemic Judgment and Motivation, The Philosophical Quarterly (with Sebastian Köhler), 70(281):738-758.

2019. Excuses, Exemptions, and Derivative Norms, Ratio, 32(2):150-158.

2018. An Explanatory Challenge for Epistemological Disjunctivism, Episteme, 15(2):141-153.

2017. Hoops and Barns: a New Dilemma for Sosa, Synthese (with Kelp, C., Broncano-Berrocal, F., Dimmock, P., Ghijsen, H. & Simion, M.), Epub ahead of print DOI 10.1007/s11229-017-1461-5.

2017. Categorical Norms and Convention-Relativism About Epistemic Discourse, dialectica, 71(1): 85-99.

2017. Epistemic Normativity and the Justification-Excuse Distinction, Synthese, 194(10): 4065-4081.

2017. Knowledge and Attributability, Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 98(1): 329-350.

2017. Epistemic Conditions on “Ought”: E=K as a Case Study, Acta Analytica, 32(2): 223–244.

2016. Excusing Prospective Agents, Logos & Episteme, 7(2):119-128.

2013. Epistemic Principles and Sceptical Arguments: Closure and Underdetermination, Philosophia, 41 (4):1125-1133.

2013. Wittgensteinian Anti-Scepticism and Epistemic Vertigo, Philosophia (with Duncan Pritchard), 41(1):27-35.

Book Chapters

2021. The Epistemic Responsibilities of Citizens in a Democracy, in The Routledge Handbook of Political Epistemology, Hannon, M. & DeRidder, J. (eds.), Routledge.

2020. Epistemic Virtues and Virtues with Epistemic Content, in Virtue Theoretic Epistemology: New Methods and Approaches (with Kelp, C., Simion, M. and Schnurr, J.), Greco, J. & Kelp, C. (eds.), Cambridge University Press.

In Preparation

“The Relational Foundations of Epistemic Normativity”, provisionally forthcoming in Philosophical Issues, a supplement to Noûs.

Book Reviews

2019. Review of The Brain in a Vat (Goldberg, S. (ed.), Cambridge University Press), International Journal for the Study of Skepticism, 9(1): 75-82.

2017. Review of Naturalizing Epistemic Virtue (Fairweather, A. & Flanagan, O. (eds.), Cambridge University Press), Journal of Moral Philosophy, 14(5): 604-607.

Recent and Upcoming Presentations

2024

TBA, Philosophy Senior Seminar Speaker Series, Glasgow University, (May)

The Relational Foundations of Epistemic Normativity, Invited Session: The Epistemic and the Interpersonal, Central APA, New Orleans, LA

2023

“Epistemic Complicity”, 18th Episteme Conference, Stone Town, Zanzibar

Invited comments on “The Agent-Directed Account of Epistemic Blame”, Colloquium Session Pacific APA, San Fransisco, CA 

2022

“Epistemic Blame and Social Power”, Epistemic Wrongs and Epistemic Reparations Workshop, African Centre for Epistemology and Philosophy of Science, University of Johannesburg

“Degrees of Epistemic Criticizability”, Western Canadian Philosophical Association, Winnipeg, MB

“Degrees of Epistemic Criticizability”, European Epistemology Network Meeting, University of Glasgow

“The Puzzle of Epistemic Blame”, Responsibility for Beliefs Workshop, University of Helsinki

Invited comments on “The Quality of Thought”, Colloquium Session Pacific APA, Vancouver, BC

“Epistemic Criticism and Epistemic Risk”, The Social and Political Dimensions of Epistemic Risk, University of Seville

“Norms of Epistemic Criticism”, Epistemic Blame: Theory and Practice Workshop, University of Johannesburg

Invited comments on Eugene Chislenko’s “Blame as Attention”, Symposium Session, Central APA, Chicago, Il.

2021

Book symposium on “The Puzzle of Epistemic Blame”, COGITO Centre for Epistemology, University of Glasgow

“Democratic Participation and the Value of Epistemic Blame”, MANCEPT Workshops in Political Philosophy – Epistemic Responsibilities of Democratic Citizens, University of Manchester September

 “TBA”, European Epistemology Network Meeting, University of Glasgow [CANCELLED]

“A Relationship-Based Account of Epistemic Blame”, Brown Bag Meetings, CONCEPT Cologne Center for Contemporary Epistemology and the Kantian Tradition, University of Cologne January

“A Relationship-Based Account of Epistemic Blame”, Symposium presentation, Commentators: Tim Kwiatek (Columbia University) and Sara Ghaffari (Bowling Green State University), 2021 Eastern APA Meeting, New York, NY

2020

Epistemic Blame and the Business Condition on Standing to Blame”, Social (Distance) Epistemology: Weekly Virtual Events, Social Epistemology Network Online

“A Relationship-Based Account of Epistemic Blame”, COGITO Zoom Work in Progress Seminar, University of Glasgow

“Epistemic Blame and the Business Condition on Standing to Blame”, Philosophy Visiting Speaker Colloquium, University of Manitoba

2019

Comments on Michael Hannon’s “Truth, Understanding, and Deliberative Democracy” and Leandro De Brasi’s “Citizen Incompetence and the Epistemic Structure of Society”, 2nd Social Epistemology Network Event, Yonsei University – South Korea

“Epistemic Normativity in Groups”, Roundtable discussion, Canadian Philosophical Association Annual Congress, University of British Columbia

2018

“Epistemic Blame?”, 2018 Annual Meeting of the Western Canadian Philosophical Association. University of Calgary

“Epistemic Blame?”, Cogito New Directions in Social Epistemology Speaker Series, University of Glasgow

“The (Virtue) Epistemology of Political Ignorance”, First Flemish Epistemology Workshop, KU Leuven

“The (Virtue) Epistemology of Political Ignorance”, Cardiff Social Epistemology Workshop: Themes from Sandy Goldberg”, Cardiff University

“Epistemic Judgment and Motivation” (with Sebastian Köhler), The Future of Normativity, Kent University

“The (Virtue) Epistemology of Political Ignorance”, European Epistemology Network Meeting, VU Amsterdam

“Against Epistemic Blame”, Pre-Read Epistemology Work-in-Progress Workshop, VU Amsterdam

“The (Virtue) Epistemology of Political Ignorance”, Canadian Philosophy Association Annual Congress, Montreal

“Intellectually Responsible Democracy”, Faculty of Arts Speaker Series, Brandon University

2017

“Political Ignorance and Epistemic Sensibility”, Guest Lecture in Epistemology, Dec 15 2017, Centre for Logic and Analytic Philosophy, KU Leuven

“Categorical Norms and Convention-Relativism About Epistemic Discourse”, 2017 Aristotelian Society Open Sessions, University of Edinburgh

“Epistemic Virtues and Virtues with Epistemic Content” (with Chris Kelp and Mona Simion), Bled Epistemology Conference 2017

“Response to Saskia Aerts'”The Formation of Epistemic Authority in the Neoplatonic Textual Community”, 3rd CLAW-DWMC Symposium

“Epistemic Judgment and Motivation”, Leuven-Southampton Epistemology Workshop, KU Leuven

Teaching

2023-2024

Fall

Intro to Philosophy (70:160)

Theory of Knowledge (70:261)

Winter

Intro to Philosophy (70:160)

Topics: Analytic Philosophy I (70:497)