Philosophy - Enlightenment - Critique – serie

Recently, both liberal philosophy of recognition and theories of epistemic injustice have come under attack for failing to reconstruct how marginalized groups find sources of recognition and agency. To understand social struggles well, we need to think of the way in which those within the struggle act towards emancipatory change instead of focusing on the (re)actions of those in power. This volume brings together leading scholars working at the intersection of epistemic injustice theories and recognition theories, setting out to apply insights from this relation to contemporary phenomena and backlashes in the formation and acts of socially struggling emancipators – also considering ideology critique, epistemology of ignorance, standpoint theory, and theories of consciousness raising.

Understanding is an ability manifested by grasping relations of a phenomenon and articulating new explanations. Hence, scientific understanding is inextricably intertwined with and not possible without explanation, and understanding is not a type of propositional knowledge. Anna Elisabeth Höhl provides a novel philosophical account of scientific understanding by developing and defending necessary and sufficient conditions for the understanding that scientists achieve of the phenomena they are researching. This account of scientific understanding is based on and supported by a detailed investigation of an episode from scientific practice in biology.

The practice of philosophy has led to both emancipation and exclusion in society. Questions around how philosophy should be practiced, who should engage in it, and with which issues philosophy should deal are subject to debate and controversy. This volume is dedicated to the special role of epistemic injustice and violence in philosophy. By shedding light on the inherent unjust structures of academic philosophy, the contributors to this volume help to better understand this powerful tool that impacts the academic landscape as well as individual and collective ways of being. From graphic novel to philosophical essay, they design a concept of transformative philosophy and offer various entry points to the conversation.