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Epistemic Injustice: Knowledge, Power, and the Ethics of Belief

8.31114

Dozenten

Prof. Dr. phil. Sven Walter

Beschreibung

The background for this course is Miranda Fricker’s groundbreaking book Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of Knowing (2007) in which she develops the concept of epistemic injustice—a form of wrong done to individuals specifically in their capacity as knowers. Fricker’s work addresses how social structures influence knowledge, identity, and credibility, leading to forms of injustice that are uniquely epistemic. In particular, Fricker distinguishes two forms of epistemic injustice: testimonial injustice, where a speaker’s credibility is unfairly downgraded due to prejudice, and hermeneutical injustice, where structural gaps in collective understanding prevent marginalized groups from interpreting and articulating their own experiences. Based on these ideas, she explores how power imbalances affect who is believed, how knowledge is distributed, and whose voices are recognized within a society, examining cases where people suffer harm due to systematic biases in credibility and interpretive frameworks.
Roughly the first half of the course will be devoted to reading and studying Fricker’s book. In the second part, we will use some of the almost 40 papers in the Routledge Handbook of Epistemic Injustice as inspiration for students to further explore the idea of epistemic injustice and its consequences in more narrowly circumscribed domains of their own interest, including potentially critiques and expansions on Fricker’s ideas from fields like cognitive science, philosophy, sociology, or feminist epistemology.

Learning Objectives
The course is designed for students in cognitive science with an interest in philosophy. Students will understand and analyze the key concepts behind the idea of epistemic injustice, including testimonial and hermeneutical injustice, improve critical reading skills through in-depth engagement with philosophical texts, and explore interdisciplinary perspectives and consider their implications for cognitive science and social philosophy.

Prerequisites and assignments
There are no formal prerequisites.

There will be some smaller assignments (“critical comments”) and potentially (depending on the number of participants) a presentation in the first half of the course. The more individualized work students do in the second half is expected to result in a final paper.

Critical comments: 30%
Presentation/attendance: 10%
Final paper: 60%

Weitere Angaben

Ort: 50/E07
Zeiten: Mo. 18:00 - 20:00 (wöchentlich)
Erster Termin: Montag, 14.04.2025 18:00 - 20:00, Ort: 50/E07
Veranstaltungsart: Seminar (Offizielle Lehrveranstaltungen)