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Typecasts, Tokens, and Spokespersons: A Case for Credibility Excess as Testimonial Injustice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Emmalon Davis
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Abstract

Miranda Fricker maintains that testimonial injustice is a matter of credibility deficit, not excess. In this article, I argue that this restricted characterization of testimonial injustice is too narrow. I introduce a type of identity‐prejudicial credibility excess that harms its targets qua knowers and transmitters of knowledge. I show how positive stereotyping and prejudicially inflated credibility assessments contribute to the continued epistemic oppression of marginalized knowers. In particular, I examine harms such as typecasting, compulsory representation, and epistemic exploitation and consider what hearers are obligated to do in response to these injustices. I argue that because epistemic harms to marginalized knowers also arise from prejudicially inflated assessments of their credibility, the virtue of testimonial justice must be revised to remedy them.

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Hypatia , Volume 31 , Issue 3 , Summer 2016 , pp. 485 - 501
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Copyright © 2016 by Hypatia, Inc.

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