Threee forms of injustice: new work in legal and political philosophy
Objectives
Each of these three forms of injustice is acutely highlighted by aspects of life in contemporary societies which are morally, socially, and legally salient: from prejudice and discrimination to disenfranchisement and anger, from gender based wrongs and misogyny to loneliness, from structural racism to the justification of certain forms of state coercion and punishment, from vulnerability to authority, from trust to the rule of law.
Looking closely at the architecture of the arguments advanced by these three philosophers will give students new conceptual tools to help them rethink fundamental aspects of the relationship between citizens and the state, the limits of the law, the meaning of "fundamental right", social justice, and the kinds of injustice the law can be used to address and correct (and those it cannot).
The course is innovative in two salient ways: on the one hand, it introduces the students to serious philosophical thinking about legal themes of central importance to practitioners across the board; on the other hand, it focuses on three new and very recently articulated conceptions of injustice. The course provides an opportunity both for deep reflection and for testing philosophical ideas directly through engagement with specific legal problems.
General characterization
Code
29005
Credits
4
Responsible teacher
RAQUEL BARRADAS DE FREITAS
Hours
Weekly - 2
Total - 24
Teaching language
English
Prerequisites
Not applicable
Bibliography
I- EPISTEMIC INJUSTICE
Seminar 1:
ESSENTIAL READING: Fricker, Miranda, Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of Knowing (OUP, 2007), Introduction and Chapter 3
Fricker, Miranda, "Evolving Concepts of Epistemic Injustice", in Kidd, Ian James, Medina, José, and Pohlhaus Jr, Gaile (eds) The Routledge Handbook of Epistemic Injustice (2017), pp.
Seminar 2:
ESSENTIAL READING: Fricker, Miranda, Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of Knowing (OUP, 2007), Chapters 1, 2, 4 and 5
Williams, Bernard, Truth and Truthfulness: An Essay in Genealogy (Princeton University Press, 2002), pp.
Hawley, K., "Trust, Distrust, and Epistemic Injustice", in Ian James Kidd, José Medina, and Gaile Polhaus, Jr (eds)
The Routledge Handbook of Epistemic Injustice (2017), pp.
Lackey, Jennifer, "False Confessions and Testimonial Injustice" The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology , Vol. 110, nº 43 (2020)
Langton, Rae, "Speech Acts and Unspeakable Acts", Philosophy and Public Affairs, Vol.22, nº 4 (Autumn 1993), 293-330
McGowan, Mary kate, Just Words: On Speech and Hidden Harm (2019)
Sherman, Benjamin, "There¿s no (testimonial) justice: why pursuit of a virtue is not the solution to epistemic injustice", Social Epistemology, vol.30, Nº 3 (2016), 229-250
Seminar 3:
ESSENTIAL READING:Fricker, Miranda, Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of Knowing (OUP, 2007), Chapters 6 and 7
Anderson, Elizabeth, "Epistemic Justice as a Virtue of Social Institutions", Social Epistemology, Vol.26, nº2 (2012), 163-173
Langton, Rae, Review of Miranda Fricker's Epistemic Injustice (OUP, 2007), Hypatia, vol. 25, nº2 (Spring 2010), pp. 459-464
II- AFFECTIVE INJUSTICE
Seminar 1:
ESSENTIAL READING:Srinivasan, Amia, "The Aptness of Anger", The Journal of Political Philosophy, Vol.26, nº2 (2018), 123-144
Bailey, Alison, "On Anger, Silence and Epistemic Injustice", Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement, vol. 84 (2018), 93-115
Burnyeat, Myles, "Anger and Revenge". Howison Lecture in Philosophy, September 24, 1996, University of California, Berkley
Butler, EmilyA., Tiane L. Lee, James J. Gross, "Emotion regulation and culture: are the social consequences of emotion suppression culture-specific?" Emotion, vol. 7 (2007), 30-48
Callard, Agnes, "The reason to be angry forever", in The Moral Psychology of Anger, ed. Owen Flanagan and Myisha Cherry (Rowman and Littlefield, 2017)
Seminar 2:
ESSENTIAL READING
Srinivasan, Amia, "The Aptness of Anger", The Journal of Political Philosophy, Vol.26, nº2 (2018), 123-144
Plunkett, David, "Anger, Fitting Attitudes, and Srinivasan¿s Category of "Affective Injustice¿¿, The Journal of Political
Philosophy, vol.29, Nº 1 (2021), 117-131
Seminar 3:
ESSENTIAL READING
Srinivasan, Amia, "The Aptness of Anger", The Journal of Political Philosophy, Vol.26, nº2 (2018), 123-144
Archer, A., Georgina Mills "Anger, Affective Injustice, and Emotion Regulation", Philosophical Topics, vol.47, nº2 (2019), 75-94
Pettigrove, Glen, "Meekness and "moral" anger", Ethics, 122 (2012), 341-370
Burnyeat, Myles, "Excuses for Madness", London Review of Books 24, 3-6
Archer, A., B. Matheson, "Commemoration and Emotional Imperialism", Journal of Applied Philosophy (April 2020)
III- SOCIAL DEPRIVATION INJUSTICE
Seminar 1:
ESSENTIAL READING
Brownlee, Kimberley, Being Sure of Each Other (OUP, 2020)
Brownlee, Kimberley, "A Human Right Against Social Deprivation", Philosophical Quarterly, 63 (251): 199-222 (2013)
Nussbaum, Martha, "Capabilities as Fundamental Entitlements: Sen and Social Justice", Feminist Economics, 9 (2-3): 33-59 (2003)
Seminar 2:
ESSENTIAL READING
Brownlee, Kimberley, Being Sure of Each Other (OUP, 2020)
Brownlee, Kimberley, "The lonely heart breaks: on the right to contribute to contribute socially", The Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, vol. 90, Nº1 (2016), 27- 48
Seminar 3:
ESSENTIAL READING
Brownlee, Kimberley, Being Sure of Each Other (OUP, 2020)
Brownlee, Kimberley, "Social deprivation and criminal justice", Rethinking Criminal Law Theory, François Tanguay-Renaud and James Stribopoulos (eds) (Hart, 2012), 217-230
Herring, Jonathan, Law and the Relational Self (OUP, 2020)
Teaching method
The first 9 weeks will be divided into three sets of three weeks, each dedicated to the study of one of the three forms of injustice. We will spend 3 weeks (3 sets of 2
hours of seminars) on each form of injustice. The remaining five weeks of the semester will be devoted to planning and writing an extended essay (3000-5000 words) on a topic of the students' choice. Students will be invited to submit an essay plan and brief literature review that will be presented and discussed in seminars scheduled for the last four weeks of term. Essays will be written during the holidays and submitted for assessment in January.
Evaluation method
The teaching of the course unit will take place through seminars that will focus on a carefully designed reading list. Students will be expected to read all materials in advance, in preparation for discussion. From week four onwards, one of the three seminar hours will be devoted to a presentation and discussion of an article or book chapter, to which another student will be invited to respond. A general discussion will follow, informed by the readings for that week.
Subject matter
The teaching of the course unit will take place through seminars that will focus on a carefully designed reading list. Students will be expected to read all materials in advance, in preparation for discussion. From week four onwards, one of the three seminar hours will be devoted to a presentation and discussion of an article or book chapter, to which another student will be invited to respond. A general discussion will follow, informed by the readings for that week.