New Atlantis 2.0: Designing Epistemically Healthy Online Conversations

In this empirically informed chapter, the authors draw general philosophical lessons regarding the promotion of healthier online conversations from their experience as consultants to OpenWeb Inc. They compare industry approaches to promoting the health of online conversation with those of users and identify a significant gap between them: While mechanisms and tools used by the industry are much more well developed in the context of civility than the context of epistemic health of conversations, users are no less interested in the epistemic health of online conversation than in its civility. In light of this, it is examined whether existing tools designed to promote more civil online conversation can be used to promote epistemic health. It is argued that attempts to promote epistemic health face a challenge not faced by those addressed in civility, that of violation identification. Therefore, common means employed to promote the civility of online conversations are not well suited for promoting their epistemic health.