Ignorance, Power, and Politics - Perspectives from Feminist and Political Epistemology

Overview

In the course, we discuss and learn about the significance of ignorance in politics and in connection to issues of social power. We will utilise especially political and feminist epistemology, though all perspectives are welcome. This course prepares the participants with a foundation to do philosophical research on these topics.

Course description

Key questions:

• What is ignorance?
• What are the social and political dimensions of ignorance?
• Is ignorance always oppressive? If so, why? and if not, when not?
• Does ignorance have positive aspects/functions? Can ignorance fulfil liberating goals?
• When is an agent culpably ignorant of their actions, meaning when is ignorance itself blameworthy?  

• How can we identify and combat complex cases of ignorance in science scepticism and social media deception?

Learning Objectives:

At the end of the course, students will be able to:

• Understand key concepts in social epistemology, esp. political and feminist conceptions of ignorance (such as "white ignorance”, “epistemic echo chambers” or “science scepticism”) and can apply them to related contemporary issues for example in the media or your own life.
• Synthesise and combine philosophical traditions, for example analytic, feminist, and continental philosophy, especially in the field of ignorance studies.
• Analyse diverse, professional-level philosophical research articles, and identify, contextualise, and evaluate their core arguments. You are able to identify the most charitable reading of the article (when appropriate).
• Clarify their own thinking about challenging philosophical topics by writing (research diary) and discussing in the classroom setting.