ERIC Number: EJ1488646
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025-Dec
Pages: 23
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0013-2004
EISSN: EISSN-1741-5446
Available Date: 2025-10-07
Intergenerational Formative Epistemic Injustice: A Wittgensteinian Critique of Dominant World-Pictures
Educational Theory, v75 n6 p1060-1082 2025
This article critically examines dominant formulations of epistemic injustice, focusing on Miranda Fricker's tradition and its broader influence. We argue that much of the literature on epistemic injustice is formulated within a specific Western world-picture, and we discuss its implications. A significant source of this confinement is the view of "language" as merely a tool for communication. Drawing on Wittgenstein, we argue that this way of conceiving language ignores its deeper connections to our "forms of life" and that the generalization of epistemic injustice definitions, intended to be universally applicable, perpetuates "intergenerational formative epistemic injustice," which has persisted since colonial "times." This, in turn, limits epistemic capacity formation and the theory's applicability in different contexts, such that claims of including marginalized ways of knowing may, in fact, facilitate their co-optation and assimilation within a Western framework. Given the global diversity of epistemic harm and its intergenerational character, this article argues that the disaggregation of the scholarship and the recognition of diverse world-pictures as constitutive of its conceptual formation are essential to disrupting epistemic injustice.
Descriptors: Epistemology, Justice, Philosophy, World Views, Linguistic Theory, Definitions, Age Differences, Criticism
Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www.wiley.com/en-us
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: 1School of Educational Studies, Hasselt University; 2Research Group on Educational Inequality, Science and Democracy, ABC Federal University; 3Department of Philosophy of Education and Educational Sciences, University of São Paulo

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