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" Who Qualifies as Victim? An Inquiry into the Consequences of Epistemic Manipulation in Public Discourse: "
Mindich, Emma Willow
Swartz, Omar
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Latin Dissertation
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English
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| Record Number
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1105058
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| Doc. No
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TLpq2292251556
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| Main Entry
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Mindich, Emma Willow
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Swartz, Omar
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| Title & Author
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Who Qualifies as Victim? An Inquiry into the Consequences of Epistemic Manipulation in Public Discourse:\ Mindich, Emma WillowSwartz, Omar
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| College
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University of Colorado at Denver
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| Date
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2019
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| student score
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2019
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| Degree
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M.H.
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| Page No
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91
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| Abstract
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In this thesis, I argue that epistemic manipulation—the manipulation of any kind of epistemic material used to form knowledge about x—in public discourse results in four dimensions of consequences: the epistemic, the political, the ontological and the ethical. First, epistemic manipulation forecloses comprehensive understanding of complex political realities. Second, these limited and manipulated understandings influence political positions and are used to cast votes, which impairs democratic processes. Third, the negative epistemic manipulation of particular populations results in political positions that have ontological consequences for these persons; they are perceived as beings that are non-equal, non-victim, and are thereby subject to harmful policies and undue degrees of death and precarity. Fourth, because the epistemic representations of these groups justify their exposure to harmful conditions, the public is not motivated to ethically intervene on their behalf, resulting in unattended injustice and ungrieved victims. These are the four consequences that result from epistemic manipulation in public discourse. However, it is possible that equally-distributed public mourning could reduce the impact of these consequences. Non-prejudicial public mourning has the capacity to do the following: more equally distribute grievability, more accurately represent contentious political events, better inform political positions, restore ontological value to those who have been dispossessed of it, extend accountability where it was lacking, and make public demands for ethical intervention.
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Philosophy
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Political science
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