ABSTRACT
polarization, as we saw in Chapter 3, is—intrinsically—an epistemically neutral phenomenon. It is the epistemic status of the factors that make groups polarize that turns group polarization into an epistemically problematic or unproblematic phenomenon. Accordingly, the question is not what groups should do not to polarize, but what should they do not to polarize in an epistemically bad manner. Bearing this in mind, in this chapter we turn to a note of constructive optimism: modeling group polarization along the lines of the collective virtue/vice model, it turns out, not only affords us a fruitful way to think about both the metaphysics and epistemology of group polarization; it also helps us bring into view what it would take to potentially overcome—or at least mitigate—the epistemic pitfalls of group polarization when things go south.
