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Understanding Epistemic Trust Injustices and Their Harms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 November 2018

Heidi Grasswick
Heidi Grasswick*
Affiliation:
Middlebury College
*
grasswick@middlebury.edu
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Abstract

Much of the literature concerning epistemic injustice has focused on the variety of harms done to socially marginalized persons in their capacities as potential contributors to knowledge projects. However, in order to understand the full implications of the social nature of knowing, we must confront the circulation of knowledge and the capacity of epistemic agents to take up knowledge produced by others and make use of it. I argue that members of socially marginalized lay communities can suffer epistemic trust injustices when potentially powerful forms of knowing such as scientific understandings are generated in isolation from them, and when the social conditions required for a responsibly-placed trust to be formed relative to the relevant epistemic institutions fail to transpire.

Type
Papers
Information
Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements , Volume 84: Harms and Wrongs in Epistemic Practice , November 2018 , pp. 69 - 91
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy and the contributors 2018 

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References

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12 More could be said about what constitutes ‘irresponsibly-placed trust’. It could range from ignoring evidence, to negligence with respect to seeking out evidence to support one's trust assessments. The standards for seeking such reasons will vary dramatically depending on the stakes involved, but I do not take up these issues here. My primary concern is with social conditions that could prevent the formation of a responsibly-placed trust.

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