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Political Epistemology

  • José Medina
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The Political Turn in Analytic Philosophy
This chapter is in the book The Political Turn in Analytic Philosophy

Abstract

This essay elucidates the recent shift from social epistemology to political epistemology, focusing specifically on the shift in the literature of epistemic injustice from an ethics of knowing to a politics of knowing. I give an analysis of how normative issues concerning epistemic oppression and marginalization need to go beyond the epistemic normativity inscribed in interpersonal dynamics and engage with the normative side of epistemic group dynamics and with the epistemic life of institutions and structures of public discourse. Drawing from recent discussions of the epistemic virtues and vices of groups and institutions, the essay pays particular attention to epistemic injustices within carceral institutions and the responsibility of institutions and publics to eradicate these injustices. Focusing on recent discussions in the literature on epistemic injustice, in the first section I elucidate some aspects of the shift from an ethics of knowing to a politics of knowing to highlight the role of institutions and group dynamics in epistemic practices and their dysfunctions. In section 2, I discuss how to normatively assess epistemic agency and epistemic responsibility at the institutional and collective level. In section 3, I address how institutional and collective epistemic injustices should be resisted through what I call epistemic advocacy and epistemic activism.

Abstract

This essay elucidates the recent shift from social epistemology to political epistemology, focusing specifically on the shift in the literature of epistemic injustice from an ethics of knowing to a politics of knowing. I give an analysis of how normative issues concerning epistemic oppression and marginalization need to go beyond the epistemic normativity inscribed in interpersonal dynamics and engage with the normative side of epistemic group dynamics and with the epistemic life of institutions and structures of public discourse. Drawing from recent discussions of the epistemic virtues and vices of groups and institutions, the essay pays particular attention to epistemic injustices within carceral institutions and the responsibility of institutions and publics to eradicate these injustices. Focusing on recent discussions in the literature on epistemic injustice, in the first section I elucidate some aspects of the shift from an ethics of knowing to a politics of knowing to highlight the role of institutions and group dynamics in epistemic practices and their dysfunctions. In section 2, I discuss how to normatively assess epistemic agency and epistemic responsibility at the institutional and collective level. In section 3, I address how institutional and collective epistemic injustices should be resisted through what I call epistemic advocacy and epistemic activism.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Acknowledgements V
  3. Table of Contents VII
  4. Editor’s Introduction IX
  5. Part I: Analytic Philosophy and Social Involvement
  6. Analytic Philosophy as Philosophical Activism 1
  7. Conceptual Engineering and Neurath’s Boat: A Return to the Political Roots of Logical Empiricism 31
  8. Part II: Mind, Knowledge, and the Social World
  9. Political Epistemology 53
  10. Intellectual Vices in Conditions of Oppression: The Turn to the Political in Virtue Epistemology 77
  11. Epistemic De-Platforming 105
  12. Philosophy of Mind after Implicit Biases 135
  13. Ameliorative Inquiry in Epistemology 151
  14. Part III: Meaning, Politics, and Identity
  15. Tackling Verbal Derogation: Linguistic Meaning, Social Meaning and Constructive Contestation 173
  16. The Power to Shape Contexts: The Transmission of Descriptive and Evaluative Contents 199
  17. Hermeneutical Injustice and Conceptual Landscaping: The Benefits and Responsibilities of Expanding Conceptual Landscaping beyond Failure Reparation 211
  18. The Meaning of ‘Woman’ and the Political Turn in Philosophy of Language 229
  19. Part IV: Epistemology and Polarization
  20. Affective Polarization and Testimonial and Discursive Injustice 257
  21. Philosophical Considerations of Political Polarization 279
  22. Notes on Contributors 299
  23. Index 303
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110612318-005

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Acknowledgements V
  3. Table of Contents VII
  4. Editor’s Introduction IX
  5. Part I: Analytic Philosophy and Social Involvement
  6. Analytic Philosophy as Philosophical Activism 1
  7. Conceptual Engineering and Neurath’s Boat: A Return to the Political Roots of Logical Empiricism 31
  8. Part II: Mind, Knowledge, and the Social World
  9. Political Epistemology 53
  10. Intellectual Vices in Conditions of Oppression: The Turn to the Political in Virtue Epistemology 77
  11. Epistemic De-Platforming 105
  12. Philosophy of Mind after Implicit Biases 135
  13. Ameliorative Inquiry in Epistemology 151
  14. Part III: Meaning, Politics, and Identity
  15. Tackling Verbal Derogation: Linguistic Meaning, Social Meaning and Constructive Contestation 173
  16. The Power to Shape Contexts: The Transmission of Descriptive and Evaluative Contents 199
  17. Hermeneutical Injustice and Conceptual Landscaping: The Benefits and Responsibilities of Expanding Conceptual Landscaping beyond Failure Reparation 211
  18. The Meaning of ‘Woman’ and the Political Turn in Philosophy of Language 229
  19. Part IV: Epistemology and Polarization
  20. Affective Polarization and Testimonial and Discursive Injustice 257
  21. Philosophical Considerations of Political Polarization 279
  22. Notes on Contributors 299
  23. Index 303
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