Ethics and Epistemology of Vaccine Hesitancy

Sven Bernecker is Humboldt Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cologne, Germany, Chancellor’s Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Irvine, USA, and Senior Research Associate at the African Institute for Epistemology and Philosophy of Science, University of Johannesburg, South Africa. His primary areas of research are epistemology, metaphysics, and philosophy of mind. He is the author of Reading Epistemology (2026), The Metaphysics of Memory (2008), Memory: A Philosophical Study (2010), and Explaining Knowledge: The Abductivist Account (2026). He is co-editor of Knowledge: Readings in Contemporary Epistemology (2000), The Routledge Companion to Epistemology (2011), The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Memory (2017), Medical Knowledge in a Social World (special issue of Synthese, 2019), The Epistemology of Fake News (2021), Kant and Contemporary Epistemology (special issue of History of Philosophy & Logical Analysis, 2022), Global Perspectives on Kant (2027), and Kant on Epistemic Autonomy and Authority (2027).Tom Sorell is Professor of Politics and Philosophy at the University of Warwick, UK, and Head of the Interdisciplinary Ethics Research Group. He has published dozens of articles in moral and political philosophy and eight books: Hobbes (1986), Descartes (1987), Moral Theory and Capital Punishment (1987), Scientism: Philosophy and the Infatuation with Science (1991), Business Ethics (1994), Moral Theory and Anomaly (2000), Descartes Reinvented (2005), and Emergencies and Politics: A Sober Hobbesian Approach (2013). He has edited or co- edited more than a dozen article collections.

• Introduction Tom Sorell and Sven Bernecker Part I: Epistemology 1. The Puzzle of Vaccine Willingness Stephen John 2. Vaccination and Russian Roulette Sven Bernecker 3. Vaccine-Hesitancy and Legitimate Epistemic Exclusion Klemens Kappel 4. Can a Trustworthy Vaccination Policy thwart Distrust? Marcel Verweij Part II: Ethics and Politics 5. When Faith and Science Collide: Resistance to Public Health Interventions during Infectious Disease Outbreaks in Sub-Saharan Africa Nancy S. Jecker, Rose Mary Amenga-Etego and Caesar A. Atuire 6. Addressing Vaccine Hesitancy in Disadvantaged Communities: Authority, Knowledge, and Trust Nicole Hassoun 7. The Reasonableness of COVID-19 Vaccine Booster Hesitancy Joshua Kelsall 8. The Liberal Normal vs Urgency in Covid Response Tom Sorell 9. Reevaluating Coercive Measures in Pediatric Vaccination: Ethics and Evidence Mark Navin. Index