One Too Many

Hermeneutical Excess as Hermeneutical Injustice

Bibliographic Data

ID12147803
AuthorsNicole Dular (0000-0001-5866-2582, Notre Dame of Maryland University, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume38
Issue2
Pages423-438
Publication date2023-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHypatia (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0887-5367 • E-ISSN: 1527-2001
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/hyp.2023.20
OpenAlexW4385185526
LanguageEN
Citations received13
References cited19

Hermeneutical injustice, as a species of epistemic injustice, is when members of marginalized groups are unable to make their experiences communicatively intelligible due to a deficiency in collective hermeneutical resources, where this deficiency is traditionally interpreted as a lack of concepts. Against this understanding, this article argues that even if adequate concepts that describe marginalized groups’ experiences are available within the collective hermeneutical resources, hermeneutical injustice can persist. This article offers an analysis of how this can happen by introducing the notion of hermeneutical excess: the introduction of additional concepts into collective hermeneutical resources that function to obscure agents’ understanding of the lived experiences of marginalized groups. The injustice of hermeneutical excesses happens not due to hermeneutical marginalization (the exclusion of members of marginalized groups from the construction of hermeneutical resources), but rather from hermeneutical domination: when members of dominant groups have been inappropriately included in the construction of hermeneutical resources. By taking as exemplary cases the concepts of “reverse racism” and “nonconsensual sex,” this article shows how such excesses are introduced as a kind of defensive strategy used by dominant ideologies precisely when progress with social justice is made

Collective responsibility · Economic Justice · Epistemology · Hermeneutics · Ideology · Injustice · Political science · Politics · Social injustice · Sociology · Theology · Critical Race Theory in Education · Feminist Epistemology and Gender Studies · Law · Philosophy · Political Philosophy and Ethics · Psychology · Social Psychology

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