A great piece. But if ‘lived experience’ are not thought of as knowledge, rather as an evolved set of priorities- or even as an extended set of emotional experiences- does it still stand? In other words, those experiences of being marginalised make someone approach a situation differently; which is not quite the same as extra knowledge.
I agree that there is no epistemological disadvantage to be privileged per se, but privileged people tend to come up with arguments that justify their positions of privilege. People have observed that no one has more class consciousness than the rich.
There's no doubt that as a matter of empirical fact one's life experiences will play a part in shaping one's beliefs, etc.
But the question of whether some particular claim or proposition is true is orthogonal to the issue of how it is that a person came to assert its truth, etc.
I'm fine. Nice to be in touch. I had to google "orthogonal".
I was thinking that psychotherapy seems to belie the claim that one is the best judge of one's situation. My psychotherapist came from a more privileged background than mine, had gone to top private schools, lived in a classy neighborhood and was quite wealthy yet she had much more insight into my life than I had. The point is that she had the conceptual tools and the gift of cognitive empathy needed to understand what was going on in my life.
Ditto: some of the greatest novels about women were written by men, Madame Bovary by Flaubert and Anna Karenina by Tolstoy. Dostoyevsky didn't need to kill someone with an axe to write Crime and Punishment. Shakespeare hadn't murdered any kings, but he wrote Macbeth.
A great piece. But if ‘lived experience’ are not thought of as knowledge, rather as an evolved set of priorities- or even as an extended set of emotional experiences- does it still stand? In other words, those experiences of being marginalised make someone approach a situation differently; which is not quite the same as extra knowledge.
Hi Jeremy,
I agree that there is no epistemological disadvantage to be privileged per se, but privileged people tend to come up with arguments that justify their positions of privilege. People have observed that no one has more class consciousness than the rich.
Amos!
How are you!?
I hope you're doing well.
There's no doubt that as a matter of empirical fact one's life experiences will play a part in shaping one's beliefs, etc.
But the question of whether some particular claim or proposition is true is orthogonal to the issue of how it is that a person came to assert its truth, etc.
I'm fine. Nice to be in touch. I had to google "orthogonal".
I was thinking that psychotherapy seems to belie the claim that one is the best judge of one's situation. My psychotherapist came from a more privileged background than mine, had gone to top private schools, lived in a classy neighborhood and was quite wealthy yet she had much more insight into my life than I had. The point is that she had the conceptual tools and the gift of cognitive empathy needed to understand what was going on in my life.
Ditto: some of the greatest novels about women were written by men, Madame Bovary by Flaubert and Anna Karenina by Tolstoy. Dostoyevsky didn't need to kill someone with an axe to write Crime and Punishment. Shakespeare hadn't murdered any kings, but he wrote Macbeth.