Why They Know Not What They Do: A Social Constructionist Approach to the Explanatory Problem of False Consciousness

Journal of Social Ontology

Wilson Lee¹ 

[1] Philosophy, University of Edinburgh School of Philosophy Psychology and Language Sciences, Dugald Stewart Building, 3 Charles Street, Edinburgh EH8 9AD, UK;

关键词: false consciousness;    social philosophy;    epistemic oppression;    ideology;    critical social ontology;   

DOI  :  10.1515/jso-2020-0012

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

False consciousness requires a general explanation for why, and how, oppressed individuals believe propositions against, as opposed to aligned with, their own well-being in virtue of their oppressed status. This involves four explanatory desiderata: belief acquisition, content prevalence, limitation, and systematicity. A social constructionist approach satisfies these by understanding the concept of false consciousness as regulating social research rather than as determining the exact mechanisms for all instances: the concept attunes us to a complex of mechanisms conducing oppressed individuals to mistake social understandings of themselves as natural self-understandings—the limits lie where these overlap, or are entirely absent.

【 授权许可】

Unknown