15 May
2025
15 May
'25
12:45 p.m.
Dear all,
we warmly invite you to the next APSE (Applied Philosophy of Science and
Epistemology) Talk and Reading Circle. The talk will be held by Veli
Mitova (University of Johannesburg).
Talk:
When: Thursday, 22.05.2025, 15:00 - 17:00
Where: HS 3A, NIG (Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Wien)
Hermeneutical Reparations and the Right to be Known
According to an increasingly influential view in social epistemology, we
owe victims of gross human rights violations not only economic and
social reparations, but also reparations for the distinctively epistemic
wrongs that attend such violations (Lackey 2022). One type of epistemic
reparation is honouring victims' 'right to be known' (_ibid._)--their
right to have their true story known. This talk has two aims. First, I
argue that the right to be known cannot be successfully exercised in
hermeneutically unjust environments, i.e., environments in which the
explanatory and epistemic resources of the oppressed do not feature in
the mainstream knowledge economy (Dotson 2012, Fricker 2007). Thus, the
successful exercise of the right to be known requires what I call
hermeneutical reparations. The second aim of the talk is to sketch three
distinct kinds of hermeneutical reparations. If the arguments work, we
will have put into dialogue two bodies of scholarship that have,
curiously, not yet talked to each other. The dialogue will not only be
of mutual theoretical benefit to both, but will also up our chances of
attaining epistemic justice.
Speaker Bio
Veli Mitova is Professor in Philosophy and Director of the African
Centre for Epistemology and Philosophy of Science [1] at the University
of Johannesburg. She works at the intersection of epistemology, ethics,
and social epistemology. She is the author of _Believable Evidence_
[2](CUP 2017), and the editor of _Epistemic Reparations and the Right to
Be Known_ [3] (forthcoming SI of _Philosophical Studies_), _Epistemic
Decolonisation_ [4](2020) and of _The Factive Turn in Epistemology_ [5]
(CUP 2018). Before joining the University of Johannesburg in 2015, Veli
taught and researched at Universität Wien, Universidad Nacional Autonoma
de México, Rhodes University (her alma mater), and Cambridge (where she
obtained her PhD).
Reading Circle:
When: Thursday, 22.05.2025, 13:00 - 15:00
Where: HS 3A, NIG (Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Wien)
We will focus our discussion on a forthcoming article by Veli Mitova
(attached pdf):
Mitova, V. (2025). Decolonial Epistemic-Authority Reparations.
_Episteme_. DOI: 10.1017/epi.2025.2
As introduction to Epistemic Reparations, Veli Mitova suggests the
following article:
Lackey J. (2022). 'Epistemic Reparations and the Right to Be Known.'
_Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association_
96, 54-89.
As introduction to Hermeneutical Injustice:
Fricker, M. (2007). Chapter 7: Hermeneutical Injustice. _Epistemic
injustice: Power and the ethics of knowing_. New York: Oxford University
Press.
Introducing the concept of Contributory Injustice:
Dotson, K. (2012). A cautionary tale: on limiting epistemic oppression.
_Frontiers - A Journal of Women's Studies_ (1): 24-47.
And the latest reading, distinguishing 3 kinds of Hermeneutical
Injustice:
Catala, A. (2025). Chapter 3: Deliberative Impasses, White Ignoring, and
Hermeneutical Domination. _The Dynamics of Epistemic Injustice:
Situating Epistemic Power and Agency. _New York: Oxford University
Press.
All the Best,
Ella Berger and Vinzenz Fischer
Links:
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[1]
https://www.uj.ac.za/faculties/humanities/departments-2/philosophy/philosop…
[2] http://www.cambridge.org/9781107188600
[3] https://link.springer.com/collections/jhbeccifed
[4] https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rppa20/49/2?nav=tocList
[5]
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/factive-turn-in-epistemology/A12342A58…