Part of the SPAH Seminar Series, Daniele Lorenzini gives a talk on 'Genealogy, Critique, and Epistemic Injustice'.
It has been argued that Foucault can be considered a theorist of epistemic injustice avant la lettre. In this paper, I take issue with this claim and show that Foucault’s and Fricker’s respective philosophical premises are incompatible. Their main philosophical disagreement rests upon their divergent ways of conceiving of the relationship between reason and power, giving rise to the contrasting kinds of normativity that characterize their critical projects. To shed light on this disagreement, I address their different uses of the genealogical method. Fricker’s state-of-nature genealogy aims to ground her claim that reason and power can be neatly pulled apart, at least as a matter of theory, thus avoiding the reductionist and relativist conclusions which, in her view, Foucault’s genealogies necessarily entail. But Foucault’s mature and so-far overlooked definition of genealogy, based on the distinction between games and regimes of truth, is not vulnerable to Fricker’s objections. I thus conclude that Foucault’s genealogical inquiries can prove helpful to exploring anew issues that normally fall under the umbrella of epistemic injustice, while also allowing us to avoid some of the main objections that threaten Fricker’s project.
About the speaker
Daniele Lorenzini is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Warwick, where he co-chairs the Centre for Research in Post-Kantian European Philosophy. He specializes in post-Kantian continental philosophy, social and political philosophy, and ordinary language philosophy. He is the author of The Force of Truth: From Foucault to Austin (2017) and Ethics and Politics of the Self (2015), and the co-editor of several volumes collecting previously unpublished lectures and texts by Michel Foucault, including Speaking the Truth about Oneself (2021), Discourse and Truth (2019), and About the Beginning of the Hermeneutics of the Self (2015).
To attend, please email spahpg@essex.ac.uk for the Zoom link. The seminar will also be streamed in NTC 3.07 for those wishing to attend on campus.