epistemic violence and philosophy for children
toward an epistemically capacious community of inquiry
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12957/childphilo.2026.94211Keywords:
epistemic violence, community of philosophical inquiry, communicative reciprocity, historicizing, epistemic injusticeAbstract
This paper explores epistemic violence as it relates to communities of philosophical inquiry. The authors start by characterizing Kristie Dotson’s epistemic systems framework and connect these ideas to the concept of epistemic violence. The authors differentiate between epistemic violence and epistemic injustice and highlight two key incidents of epistemic violence that serve as points of analysis: one arising in a community of philosophical inquiry facilitated by one of the contributing authors where students discussed Dutch-Lenape history in New York City and the other described by Philosophy for Children scholar Ruth Silver about an epistemic exclusion that occurred during a Philosophy for Children facilitation workshop. Using these instances, we argue that it is the impermeability of the dominant frameworks and communicative norms that govern these inquiries that may render the introduction of certain protective factors, such as historicizing and communicative reciprocity, necessary in order to uphold the ideals of a community of inquiry.
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