PHIL 222 Knowledge and Power
This course will explore the relationship between knowledge and social and political power, focusing on epistemic dimensions of racial and gender oppression. The course will address several of the following questions: (1) How do stereotypes and propaganda operate, and what sort of threat do they pose to equality in the United States? (2) How do ideologies entrench privilege and injustice, and how can we counteract the effects of bias and false beliefs that persist in the face of strong opposing evidence? (3) Is there a distinctively epistemic form of injustice, and, if so, what does this form of injustice look like? (4) To what extent does epistemic injustice affect our ability to know ourselves, and how can we counteract its effects on our self-understanding? The authors that will be discussed may include Michel Foucault, Charles Mills, Kristie Dotson, Sally Haslanger, José Medina, Tommie Shelby, Jason Stanley, Patricia Hill Collins, and Miranda Fricker.
This course has an experiential learning component.