Epistemic Injustice as Vice and Epistemic Agent's Responsibility

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K12926
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 01010:Philosophy and ethics-related
• Research Institution: Ibaraki University (2021-2022); Keiai University (2019-2020)
• Principal Investigator: KUNIMASA SATO 茨城大学, 教育学部, 助教 (50781100)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 認識的不正義 / 道徳的責任 / 認識的責任 / 偏見 / 認識的不運 / 変容的責任

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study demonstrated different types of moral and epistemic responsibility for testimonial injustice. First, I articulated the structural type of testimonial injustice, that is, the injustice that can be perpetrated not by vicious persons, including people who possess old-fashioned racism, sexism, abelism, misogyny, etc., but by structural prejudices that are embedded in the social norms and institutions of the time, such as patriarchial social norms. I classified the four distinct types of epistmeic bad luck related to people with such structural prejudices. Third, I distinguished between moral and epistemic responsibility in the relevant literature and proposed a new notion of responsibility, that is, transformative responsibility as a virtue of dissonance, from a virtue-based perspective.

Free Research Field

哲学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究の学術的成果は、認識的行為者が犯すと言える責任の種類と範囲にかんして一定の見通しを与えたことである。具体的には、先行研究で十分に整理されていなかった、行為者が負う責任がどのような種類であり（認識的責任か、道徳的責任か）、何に対するものなのか（偏見に影響を受けた判断か、無自覚な偏見の発揮か、偏見の発揮による悪質な言動なのか）を整理した。本研究の社会的意義は、認識的行為者の責任のあり方を考察する統一的な理論的視座を明確にすることで、社会における認識実践における不正義のせいで生じる差別の倫理的問題と、認識的正義の徳を育む教育的問題を扱う学際研究に発展する可能性を示したことである。