Alcoff, Linda. “What Philosophy can Contribute to the Global Resistance Against Rape?” City College of New York. New York City. 20 Nov. 2014.
“I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think.” –Socrates
Yesterday was World Philosophy Day and UNESCO had organized a public talk with guest speaker Linda Alcoff at City College. Alcoff is a philosopher of epistemology, who has written on the global epidemic of rape. She talked about how social media is used in this politically complex problem of sexual violence, how society still clings to taint of the victims, though the taint has grown into a psychological one in the recent years, and she also discussed meta-lucidity and epistemic resistance.
Three themes stood out to me:
- It takes time to make sense of any situation, including traumatic ones such as rape. Survivors’ perspective may change, but the credibility deficit associated with women, children, slaves etc. is not grounded.
- She explained that reverse empiricism is unjustified in the context of sexual violence. The logic that if a woman has been sexually abused, then she can’t reason properly is not justified considering that people’s opinion change.
- The key solution to sexual violence is to create safe circles of discourse. She noted that sexual violence is brought up only when it serves another narrative, so one needs to think of that too.
I haven’t read any of her books or articles, but it would be a helpful resource in answering, “What can philosophy contribute to the debate on unjust and restrictive laws?”
