Epistemic Injustices

Epistemic injustices are a specific kind of injustice that effects individuals in their role and capacity as knowers. For example, when law enforcement does not believe testimony based on prejudices against a certain social category, members of this group face a specific kind of injustice. Similarly, when somebody lacks a concept in order to interpret their experience (as was the case concerning sexual harassment before the introduction of the concept in the 1970s) then they also face an injustice in their role as a knower. This course will look at recent literature that deals with the phenomenon of epistemic injustices and their effects. This will include looking at vice epistemology, that is, the study of the intellectual bad habits that can lead to epistemic injustices and readings on the epistemology of ignorance, or the willful refusal to modify our intellectual practices in order to not see injustices. This course will also examine responses to epistemic injustices and the ways that resistance to bad intellectual practices plays a role in shaping the political landscape.