Emancipatory Inquiry: Essays in Standpoint Epistemology

In this dissertation, I provide novel interpretations and defenses of the central theses of standpoint epistemology. Chapter 1 develops a novel version of the Epistemic Advantage Thesis according to which marginalized people’s social locations provide higher-order support for certain of their beliefs about the workings of marginalization. Chapter 2 develops a novel version of the Standpoint Thesis on which standpoints are individuated in relation to social practices rather than in relation to social groups. Chapter 3 argues that knowing that certain objects have certain properties requires feeling the emotional response that those objects, by virtue of having those properties, in fact merit. This thesis, while not itself a novel reinterpretation of one of the central theses of standpoint epistemology, provides the grounds for a new version of the Epistemic Advantage Thesis.