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epistemic exploitation

📖 Definitions

"Epistemic exploitation occurs when privileged persons compel marginalized persons to produce an education or explanation about the nature of the oppression they face" (Bernstain 2016, 578).

"epistemic exploitation occurs when epistemic labor is coercively extracted from epistemic agents in the service of others" (Pohlhaus 2017, 22).

"inclusion within normatively governed systems may coercively direct the epistemic agency of marginalized knowers in ways that asymmetrically serve the epistemic interests of dominantly situated knowers while undermining their own. Such inclusions can, therefore, be epistemically exploitative, extracting epistemic labor from some solely for the benefit of others." (Pohlhaus 2020, 241)

"there is a relationship between A and B, in which A accrues epistemic benefits from B’s knowledge and epistemic location and in doing so harms B, setting back B’s interests relative to A’s interests." (Fehr and Jones 2022, 8)

💡 Examples

  • "‘exercising harmless curiosity,’ ‘just asking a question,’ ‘making a well-intentioned effort to learn,’ ‘offering alternative explanations,’ and ‘playing devil’s advocate’" (Berenstain 2016, 571).
  • "For example, epistemic and social coercion may be used to produce testimony that is subordinating" (Pohlaus 2017, 22)

🔗 Relations

📚 References

  • Berenstain, Nora. 2016. "Epistemic Exploitation." Ergo 3 (22). https://doi.org/10.3998/ergo.12405314.0003.022
  • Pohlhaus Jr., Gaile. 2017. “Varieties of Epistemic Injustice.” In The Routledge Handbook of Epistemic Injustice, edited by Ian James Kidd, José Medina, and Gaile Pohlhaus Jr. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315212043.
  • Pohlhaus Jr., Gaile 2020. “Epistemic Agency Under Oppression.” Philosophical Papers 49 (2): 233–51. https://doi.org/10.1080/05568641.2020.1780149
  • Fehr, Carla, and Janet Minji Jones. 2022. "Culture, Exploitation, and Epistemic Approaches to Diversity." Synthese 200 (6): 465. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-022-03787-8.