New subject: REMINDER: APSE talk by Veli Mitova (University of Johannesburg) + reading group on Thursday, May 22, 2025

15 May 2025

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…