Abstract

This Independent Study thesis is divided into five chapters. In the introduction, I explain the focus of the paper. In the second chapter, “Landscapes of Epistemic Injustice,” I clarify the concept of epistemic injustice by breaking it down into hermeneutical injustice and testimonial injustice. I argue that we have obligations to each other as knowers and producers of knowledge, and the content of these obligations within a given situation depends upon the social position of both the speaker and the audience or audiences. In the third chapter, “Epistemic Oppression and Colonialism,” I contend that Western colonial projects frequently enact third-order epistemic oppression upon colonized and marginalized groups by imposing a colonial set of background assumptions upon these groups and using these assumptions to subjugate their ways of knowing and expressions of knowledge. In the fourth chapter, “Situating Resistance to Epistemic Oppression,” I argue that different colonized and marginalized groups may develop a multitude of different methods of resistance to colonial epistemic oppression, but that members of groups that benefit from this oppression such as myself ought not dictate to these groups how resistance ought to occur. However, I contend, beneficiaries of colonial epistemic oppression can work with each other to critically examine and combat dominant practices of epistemic injustice. Finally, in the conclusion, I outline some practices in which beneficiaries of colonialism can engage to combat colonial epistemic oppression.

Advisor

McBride, Lee

Department

Philosophy

Disciplines

Epistemology | Feminist Philosophy | Other Philosophy

Publication Date

2022

Degree Granted

Bachelor of Arts

Document Type

Senior Independent Study Thesis Exemplar

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© Copyright 2022 Timothy J. Cotter