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Affective Polarization and Testimonial and Discursive Injustice

  • Manuel Almagro-Holgado and Alba Moreno-Zurita
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The Political Turn in Analytic Philosophy
This chapter is in the book The Political Turn in Analytic Philosophy

Abstract

There is strong evidence that the rise of political polarization increases biases, prejudices, and public hostility toward people from certain socially disadvantaged groups, among other things. As a result, cases of testimonial and discursive injustice are more likely to happen. It is more likely that disenfranchised people’s claims are given less credibility than deserved and that their words are taken as performing a different speech act from the intended one, or even that they are prevented from performing certain speech acts. The aim of this chapter is to explore which of the two prominent notions of polarization in the literature is better positioned to account for this relation. These notions are ideological polarization and affective polarization. The former is mostly characterized by the distance between certain belief contents in an ideological spectrum, while the latter has more to do with people’s willingness to like the ingroup and dislike the outgroup, which is tied to a certain level of credence in the beliefs of the group one identifies with. In particular, we argue that affective polarization is better positioned than ideological polarization to explain the relationship between the increase in polarization and the increase in certain injustices.

Abstract

There is strong evidence that the rise of political polarization increases biases, prejudices, and public hostility toward people from certain socially disadvantaged groups, among other things. As a result, cases of testimonial and discursive injustice are more likely to happen. It is more likely that disenfranchised people’s claims are given less credibility than deserved and that their words are taken as performing a different speech act from the intended one, or even that they are prevented from performing certain speech acts. The aim of this chapter is to explore which of the two prominent notions of polarization in the literature is better positioned to account for this relation. These notions are ideological polarization and affective polarization. The former is mostly characterized by the distance between certain belief contents in an ideological spectrum, while the latter has more to do with people’s willingness to like the ingroup and dislike the outgroup, which is tied to a certain level of credence in the beliefs of the group one identifies with. In particular, we argue that affective polarization is better positioned than ideological polarization to explain the relationship between the increase in polarization and the increase in certain injustices.

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/10.1515/9783110612318-014

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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