Episode 98: Jennifer Lackey discusses credibility
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What is the central focus of the episode on credibility?
Hey, Matt Techman here from Elucidations. I just want to say thanks very much for all the iTunes reviews. They've been very helpful and please keep 'em coming. As always, you can find us on Twitter at Lucidations Pod. And you can check out our blog at Lucian, that's L U C I A N Lucian. ushicago dot edu slash blogs slash elucidations. One other thing I wanted to mention is that since August we've been doing our hosting through a new startup called Pippa, which is pretty cool. It's actually founded by some former philosophers. And I have to say I've been very impressed so far. The service is totally free, provides detailed analytics, makes it very easy for you to migrate from your previous host to them.
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Hello and welcome to Elucidations, a philosophy podcast recorded at the University of Chicago. I'm Matt Teichman, and with me today is Jennifer Lackey, Wayne and Elizabeth Jones Professor of Philosophy at Northwestern University. And she's here to discuss credibility. Jennifer Lucky, welcome.
Thanks for having me, Matt.
So you've been doing a lot of interesting work thinking about the ethical issues that come up in the way we attribute credibility to other people. So both attributing too little credibility to people and attributing too much credibility to people and I guess also when things go right, attributing the right amount of credibility to people. What would be an example of like one of these as it were kind of like credibility misfires?
So yeah, I've been thinking a lot about well, the norms governing our credibility assessments, how we ought to be assessing people's credibility. And while I am interested in the ethics of credibility, I'm also interested in the epistemology of credibility. So I mean, I guess what I would say is the project is looking both at the epistemic norms and the ethical norms. So when we properly assess someone's level of credibility. I'm interested in those cases in which we're so to speak in the epistemic and moral clear. by virtue of that assessment. You know, there's a concept called, you know, testimonial injustice that Has been the topic of a fair bit of discussion in social epistemology lately. And the core idea of it is that someone is the victim of testimonial injustice if they suffer a credibility deficit, specifically due to identity prejudice.
So for instance, if a police officer is interviewing someone who is reporting a sexual assault and doesn't regard her testimony as credible simply because she's a woman and women lie about these sorts of things, for instance. That would be a classic case in which the woman is the victim of testimonial injustice because she's suffering a credibility deficit simply because she's a woman. I mean assuming of course that you know she's not getting the level of credibility that she deserves. The question then is of course, what is it to get the credibility that you deserve? And a really standard view is that our credibility assessments ought to track the evidence. So you get the credibility that you deserve when I judge you to be as credible as the evidence suggests you are, right?
So if I judge your statement to be credible, that you were assaulted, for instance, then that is following the norm so long as I give that statement. statement, you know, I assess it properly in relation to the evidence.
Right, so I hear testimony like this, I'm the detective, let's imagine. And there's evidence to back up this person's credibility. So uh the story I got from this person fits with facts that I've independently observed. And based on interviewing other people, I found that this person is a reliable in you know, is a reliable eyewitness to various things and doesn't get the facts wrong. So what this rule of following evidence tells us is
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the central focus of the episode on credibility?
0:00–6:47
2
How does Jennifer Lackey define testimonial injustice and give real‑world examples?
6:47–10:57
3
What are credibility deficits versus credibility surpluses, and why do they matter?
10:57–15:24
4
How can a credibility surplus create moral and epistemic wrongs in contexts like classrooms?
15:24–20:49
5
What is the Dunning‑Kruger effect and how does it relate to over‑ and under‑confidence in credibility judgments?
20:49–26:56
6
What normative framework does Lackey propose for assessing credibility fairly?
26:56–30:03
7
Why must credibility assessments be understood as a social, relational practice?
30:03–31:26
8
What practical steps can listeners take to avoid both credibility deficits and surpluses?
31:26–31:53
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Elucidations
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