The Duck and the Philosopher: Epistemic Maintenance, Generativity, and Responsibility in Distributed Knowledge Systems
Abstract
This article develops a conceptual distinction between epistemic maintenance and epistemic generativity in distributed knowledge systems. Epistemic maintenance refers to the stabilisation, optimisation, and reproduction of inherited evaluative standards. Generativity, by contrast, begins when such standards fail under conditions of rupture and must be reconstructed rather than merely applied. The paper argues that much contemporary discussion of so-called generative AI conflates optimisation with agency, thereby overstating the epistemic status of current systems. It proposes that the central question is not whether a system produces novel outputs, but whether it can participate in revising the normative standards that govern its own operations. On that basis, the article analyses responsibility in distributed socio-technical arrangements, showing that traceability becomes difficult when norm-governed activity is dispersed across human and technical components without corresponding retention of authorship. The paper contributes a philosophical framework for analysing agency, norm revision, and responsibility in advanced AI and other distributed knowledge environments.
Keywords
- AI governance
- epistemic generativity
- epistemic agency