Prof. Nina Windgätter (UNH) will present “The Epistemic Need for Coalitions for Corrective Justice”

When activists talk about social justice, they often talk about forming and maintaining coalitions. These coalitions of differently-situated actors are needed in order to make social and political changes in our complex society. In this talk, I argue that coalitions are also necessary for corrective justice for epistemic reasons. The systematic, interlocking, and intersectional nature of the injustices we face function to obscure how the injustices work, what kind of correction is possible, whether corrections which are enacted are being successful, and, sometimes, even that there is an injustice at all. Differently-situated people in the system have different epistemic access to these injustices, so it is important that they effectively communicate with one another so that corrective justice can succeed. Therefore, if we want our principles of corrective justice to apply in our world, they will need to call for coalitions of differently-situated actors working together over extended periods of time.

Sponsored by: The Philosophy Club and Phi Beta Kappa