Powerlessness and Social Interpretation
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Our understanding of social experiences is central to our social understanding more generally. But this sphere of epistemic practice can be structurally prejudiced by unequal relations of power, so that some groups suffer a distinctive kind of epistemic injustice— hermeneutical injustice . I aim to achieve a clear conception of this epistemicethical phenomenon, so that we have a workable definition and a proper understanding of the wrong that it inflicts.
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When hermeneutical injustice undermines the subject in his capacity as an interpreter of his own social experience, it is not only the authority to shape others' understanding that is missing; additionally, a more fundamental agency with respect to social meaning is inhibited.
“When hermeneutical injustice ' [undermines] the subject in his capacity as an interpreter of his own social experience' (Fricker 2006 : 108), I contend, it is not only the authority to shape others' understanding that is missing.Additionally, a more fundamental agency with respect to social meaning is inhibited.”
From Agency and authority: A differentiated model of hermeneutical power (2025) · cites this paper as Fricker 2006
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- Authors
- Fricker, M.
- Corresponding author
- Fricker, Miranda
- ORCID
- Fricker, Miranda
- Venue
- Episteme
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2006-06
- Volume
- 3
- Issue
- 1-2
- Pages
- 96-108
- ISSN
- 1742-3600 (ISSN-L)
- 1750-0117
- OpenAlex
- W2133844862
- Cited by
- 167
- References
- 9
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 38 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 20.90
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- sas-space.sas.ac.uk
- Locations
- Episteme (publishedVersion)
- SAS-Space (University of London) (submittedVersion)
- Project Muse (Johns Hopkins University) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Feminist Epistemology and Gender Studies
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Hermeneutics and Narrative Identity
- Keywords
- hermeneutical injustice, epistemic injustice, power relations, social interpretation, epistemic ethics, social understanding, wrongs
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