Epistemic Trust and Social Location

Abstract

Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/EPI, IP address: 144.82.108.120 on 29 Oct 2015 E P I S T E M E 2 0 0 6 109 Na n c y Dau k a s Epistemic Trust and Social Location abstract Epistemic trustworthiness is defi ned as a complex character state that supervenes on a relation between fi rst-and second-order beliefs, including beliefs about others as epistemic agents. In contexts shaped by unjust power relations, its second-order components create a mutually supporting link between a defi ciency in epistemic character and unjust epistemic exclusion on the basis of group membership. In this way, a defi ciency in the virtue of epistemic trustworthiness plays into social/epistemic interactions that perpetuate social injustice. Overcoming that defi ciency and, along with it, normalized practices of epistemic exclusion, requires developing a self-critical perspective on the partial, socially-located character of one's perspective and the consequent epistemic value of inclusiveness.