[PHILOS-L] Workshop Call for Abstracts – The Wisdom, and Madness, of Crowds (Rotterdam, May 28–29, 2026)

[Lena Voorbergen]

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Dear all,

We are pleased to announce the upcoming workshop The Wisdom, and Madness, of Crowds: a workshop on group beliefs, echo chambers and collective identities, to be held on May 28–29, 2026, at Erasmus University Rotterdam.

The workshop will bring together philosophers interested in the formation, dynamics, and epistemic implications of collective beliefs, as well as the social mechanisms that sustain or undermine them—such as echo chambers, polarization, and group identity effects. Confirmed speakers are Fernando Broncano-Berrocal, Margaret Gilbert (online), Jesper Kallestrup and Lukas Schwengerer.

We invite submissions of anonymized abstracts of no more than 500 words for 20-minute presentations (followed by 25 minutes of Q&A). We welcome submissions on issues related to the social epistemology of (online) misinformation, online groups and communities, as well as the epistemology of groups. The following is a list of exemplary questions that fit the theme of the workshop:

• Are people individually responsible for their ‘bad beliefs’ or should we look at collective epistemic processes instead?
• What non-epistemic functions, such as identity signaling, do beliefs fulfill within groups? How do these functions relate to the phenomenon of misinformation?
• What is (justified) group belief or group knowledge?
• What does it mean for a group to have evidence?
• What role do groups, networks and other kinds of collectives play in the post-truth phenomenon?
• Is it always irrational to stay in an echo chamber?
• What kind of (epistemic) obligations do we have with respect to our groups and other members within them?
• What is groupthink? How should we navigate autonomy and conformity within groups?

In your submission email, please indicate:

• whether you are an early-career researcher (e.g., PhD student or within five years of PhD completion);
• whether you would like to apply for financial support for travel and accommodation.

Please send your anonymized abstract as a PDF file to voorb...@esphil.eur.nl with the subject line “Crowds Workshop Submission”.
The deadline for submission is January 31, 2026. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by February 28, 2026.

For any questions, please contact: voorb...@esphil.eur.nl

We look forward to your submissions and to lively discussions in Rotterdam!

 

Best regards,

Giulia Napolitano & Lena Voorbergen
Erasmus University Rotterdam

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