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Added by: Ravi ThakralAbstract:
This paper begins with the idea that there are sometimes gaps in our shared linguistic/conceptual resources that make it difficult for us to understand our own social experiences, and to make them intelligible to others. In this paper, I focus on three cases of this sort, some of which are drawn from the literature on hermeneutical injustice. I offer a diagnosis of what the gaps in these cases consist in, and what it takes to fill them. I argue that these gaps are filled in, at least initially, by labels of a particular kind. Specifically, these are labels that allow us to see the experiences in question as novel instances of phenomena with which we are already normatively familiar. Further, I also show that these labels bring with them important downsides: they introduce distortions into our understandings of these experiences. Using a pair of case studies (‘statutory rape,’ ‘sexual harassment’), I illustrate these distortions.
Comment: Ishani Maitra's paper on missing labels to describe injustices is a good text to assign alongside Miranda Fricker on hermeneutical injustice. It discusses central cases of such injustice in a detailed, accessible way (along with various other relevant ones) while discussing the significance (and complications) of missing labels for injustices more generally.
Maitra, Ishani. New Words for Old Wrongs
2018, Maitra, I. (2018) ‘New Words for Old Wrongs’, Episteme, 15(3), pp. 345–362
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