Knowledge production and science were hardly associated with injustice or violence. Philosophy, in particular, as love of wisdom, is seen as an antidote rather than a cause of violence or injustice. However, activists (“Why is my curriculum white?”, displacement of indigenous languages in favor of colonial languages, Vandana Shiva's critique of science) and academics (e.g. Fricker 2008, Dotson 2011, Dhawan 2012, Sousa Santos 2014) repeatedly point out that forms of e.g. racist and sexist injustice can also be found at the epistemic level. With the publication of Brunner's work “Epistemic Violence” (2020), the discourse has been reignited and is being negotiated in post- and decolonial and feminist debates. This Round Table discussion is dedicated to the special role of epistemic injustice and violence in philosophy.
Please, also check out the ROund Table by our colleagues about a similar topic:
Marginalisation, Exclusion, and Invalidation of Knowledge. Issues in Political Epistemology
Mareike Kajewski, Abosede Ipadeola, Gerald Posselt, Sergej Seitz, Moira Perez, Lars Leeten
Truth and knowledge are deeply dependent on recognition, and epistemic discourse is inevitably involved in a struggle for recognition. This struggle, in turn, is inevitably a political struggle: although knowledge certainly cannot be reduced to power, the production of knowledge is deeply influenced by power structures. Recent discussions around ‘epistemic injustice’ and ‘epistemic violence’ reminded us of the many forms how knowledge is suppressed: different voices carry different weight, some voices are silenced, and knowledge once recognized can be invalidated. This round table revolves around the different forms of suppression of knowledge: under the heading ‘Marginalisation, Exclusion, and Invalidation of Knowledge’ we will discuss how interpretations of the world can be rejected as ‘mere interpretations’, not for epistemic reasons but because of power structures. There is an inherent political dimension to epistemology that still needs to be thoroughly explored.
Find out more about the World Philosophy Conrgess here.