Question

1.What is double consciousness? Explain and give an example.

2.What is a stereotype? Define and give an example.

3.What is Epistemic Injustice?

4.Explain social power and how it can be active or passive. Use an example.

5.How do agential social power and structural power interact?

6.Explain identity power.

7.What are the two types of wrongs produced by epistemic injustice? Based on the history of philosophy that we have studied why are they so harmful to an individual as a human being?

8.How can we improve our tendencies toward committing epistemic injustice? There are three ways. How might these individual improvements begin to change structural power?

Answer 1

• 1.Double consciousness is a concept that Du Bois first explores in 1903 publication, “The Souls of Black Folk”. Double consciousness describes the individual sensation of feeling as though your identity is divided into several parts, making it difficult or impossible to have one unified identity. Du Bois spoke of this within the context of race relations in the United States. He asserted that since American blacks have lived in a society that has historically repressed and devalued them that it has become difficult for them to unify their black identity with their American identity.
• Double consciousness describes the feeling that you have more than one social identity, which makes it difficult to develop a sense of self.
• The double consciousness refers to creating an awareness of white American culture to assimilate into that culture and what it deems as normative, while also maintaining a distinctive culture of our own to relate to one another. For example, if an American were transplanted to Italy, he or she would have to quickly abrogate the standard mores and cultural norms that are considered natural in the US in favor of the standards and customs practiced in Italy.
• The media promote images of African-American men as criminals, rappers, or professional athletes. As a result, other subcultures perceive African-American men in this limited capacity. Not only do others outside the race carry this perception, but young African-American males may believe these limited paths are their only options for making a better life for themselves. Within the family or culture, they may be encouraged to aspire to more than just these professions. Yet, a more powerful entity challenges this by continuing to assume the role of shaping the perceptions that minorities have of themselves, as well as how others view them.
• 2.A stereotype is a fixed, over generalized belief about a particular group or class of people.A stereotype is a preconceived notion, especially about a group of people. Many stereotypes are racist, sexist, or homophobic. Stereotypes have been defined as a false classificatory concept to which as a rule a strong emotional feeling tone of likes or dislikes, approval or disapproval is attached.
• One of the more common stereotype examples is stereotypes surrounding race. For example, saying that all Blacks are good at sports is a stereotype, because it’s grouping the race together to indicate that everyone of that race is a good athlete.Gender stereotypes also exist. For example, if you say that men are better than women, you’re stereotyping all men and all women. If you say that all women like to cook, you are stereotyping women.
• 3.Epistemic injustice refers to unfairness due to aspects of knowledge (the domain of epistemology), how it is communicated, and how it is understood.
• The term epistemic injustice was coined by Miranda Fricker (2007), and she divides this concept into two types: testimonial and hermeneutical injustice. Testimonial injustice, on the one hand, occurs when the testimony of a speaker is not trusted because of an unjustified prejudice of the hearer.
• One of Fricker’s examples for such an injustice is the case of Tom Robinson in Harper Lee’s novel To Kill A Mockingbird. Robinson is a black man accused of raping a white girl, and his testimony is met with racial prejudice during trial: in the context of the racist 1930s in Alabama, where the story takes place, a white girl’s testimony is given much more credibility than a black man’s testimony. Robinson is unjustly wronged in his ability to know, simply for the color of his skin.
• Hermeneutical injustice, on the other hand, occurs when persons are wrongfully denied the ability to understand the social experience they make. Fricker’s example for this kind of epistemic injustice is the inability of a homosexual man to properly understand his desire in the context of a society where homosexuality is condemned as a sin. Under such circumstances, it can become impossible for him to develop a positive relation to himself and his sexual orientation.
• 4.Social power is a form of power that is found in society and within politics. While physical power relies upon strength to force another person to act, social power is found within the rules of society and laws of the land. It rarely uses one-on-one conflicts to force others to act in ways they normally would not.For example,in coercive power; involves threat of punishment. These can be things such as monetary fines (impersonal) or simply personal disapproval (personal).Another type of social power is Reward power. This social power type stems from the ability of the influencing agent to grant some kind of reward, either impersonal or personal.Many politicians and big business men show their active social power by directly influencing laws in their own favour by using their status and the money they posses is a passive power which can be indirectly used to influence people to get their work done.Like how,politicians give money to people to conduct rallies or protests but they themselves stay at the backseat.
• Due to time constraints only some questions could be answered,the remaining can be asked as another question,they will be answered,thankyou for your cooperation