Project Leader: Assistant Professor

Ivan Cerovac Ivan Cerovac is an established scholar within the field of epistemic democracy and its implementation in the contemporary world. Much of the PI’s work addresses the major points of debate within the field and, more specifically, how the advent of new tools, technologies, and procedures affects both the moral value and the epistemic quality of democracy. His book Epistemic Democracy and Political Legitimacy (Palgrave Macmillan 2020) is internationally praised for an outstanding systematization of different theories of epistemic democracy as well as the strong defense of political deliberation that is sensitive to epistemic injustices resulting from social and economic inequalities. Similarly, his book, John Stuart Mill and Epistemic Democracy (Rowman & Littlefield 2022), analyzes the epistemic value of wide political participation by paying special attention to the epistemic division of labor and the benefits it brings to political decision-making. 

Project Collaborator: Full Professor Elvio Baccarini

Elvio Baccarini is the author of a series of original research monographs and numerous papers dedicated to research in political and moral philosophy, among which it is pertinent to stress “Which Theory of Public Reason? Epistemic Injustice and Public Reason” (Croatian Journal of Philosophy, 2020), dedicated to researching the relationship between epistemic injustice and theories of public justification; “Public Reason and Reliability Democracy” (Filozofija i društvo, 2020), dedicated to researching the relationship between the theory of epistemic reliability of democracy and theories of public justification; and the paper dedicated to the development of evaluative standards for the inclusion of people with mental disorders in public justification processes “Public Justification, Evaluative Standards, and Different Perspectives in the Attribution of Disability (with Kristina Lekić Barunčić, Philosophies, 2023). In line with previous research work, Baccarini will devote himself to issues related to the political and epistemic aspects of the inclusion of experts, marginalized groups, and people with mental disorders in the processes of public deliberation and the development of public justifications in the context of digital technologies for public discussion (social media). 

  Project Collaborator: Full Professor Snježana Prijić-Samaržija

Snježana Prijić-Samaržija is the author of a series of original research monographs and papers devoted to epistemology, social epistemology, and political epistemology. Prijić-Samaržija’s latest book, Democracy and Truth: The Conflict Between Political and Epistemic Virtues (Mimesis International, 2018), is an internationally acclaimed key contribution to the debate on the reconciliation of epistemic and political demands in democratic systems. In addition, in a series of papers, Prijić-Samaržija deals with key issues of the political epistemology of democracy – the issue of the relationship between critical thinking and trust in epistemic authorities in the context of the epistemic qualities of democratic processes in the paper “Critical Thinking and Trusting Experts in Real-life Democracies” (The Epistemology of Democracy, Routledge, 2023), the issue of epistemic virtues as a property of institutions in the article “Epistemic Virtues of Institutions” (Institutions in Action: The Nature and the Role of Institutions in the Real World, Springer: Cham, 2020), and the issue of the epistemic justification of democracy in the paper “The Epistemic Justification of Democracy” (Croatian Journal of Philosophy, 2020). In line with previous research work, Prijić-Samaržija will focus on the development of the theory of digital democracy under non-ideal epistemic conditions, as well as issues of epistemic responsibility, critical thinking, and rationality in the context of the non-ideal political epistemology of digital democracy. 

Project Collaborator: Full Professor Vojko Strahovnik

Vojko Strahovnik is the author of a number of articles and monographs, with a central research focus on issues of phenomenology of normativity in ethics, epistemology, philosophy of science, law, cognitive sciences, and artificial intelligence. In the project, Strahovnik will focus on issues of the relationship between epistemic virtues and subjective rationality in the context of social epistemology and, in cooperation with Mateja Centa Strahovnik, on issues of the impact of artificial intelligence on subjective epistemic standards. 

Project Collaborator: Assistant Professor Benedikt Perak

Benedikt Perak is the author of a number of original research articles, specializing in corpus and cognitive linguistics and the application of natural language processing (NLP) technologies, artificial intelligence, and the development of information ontologies. In the project, Perak will focus on the implications of the implementation of artificial intelligence (large language models) in the public sector, politics, and media coverage, specifically related to their impact on the epistemic qualities of public deliberation and participation in democratic processes.

Project Collaborator: Assistant Professor Mateja Centa Strahovnik

Mateja Centa Strahovnik is the author of a series of articles with a research focus on the relationships between ethics, phenomenology, artificial intelligence, and educational processes. In accordance with her previous research work, Centa Strahonvik will focus on the issue of the impact of digital technologies on educational processes in a democratic society and, in cooperation with Vojka Strahovnik, on the issue of the impact of artificial intelligence on subjective epistemic standards. 

Project Collaborator: Tomislav Furlanis, Ph.D.

Tomislav Furlanis is a young researcher focused on ethical and epistemological aspects of artificial intelligence, whose previous work includes exceptional research results with publications in high-quality journals and international collected volumes. In the project, Furlanis will continue his research focus on artificial intelligence, devoting himself to issues of ethical aspects in the use of artificial intelligence (large language models) in the work of public administration.