Genocide Denialism as Testimonial Oppression

Altanian, Melanie (6 December 2019). Genocide Denialism as Testimonial Oppression (Unpublished). In: Epistemic Injustice in the Aftermath of Collective Wrongdoing. Universität Bern. 6.-7. Dezember 2019.

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In this paper, I investigate whether and how genocide denial may perpetrate testimonial oppression against members of the former victim group. I do so by looking at the practice of genocide denial in contexts of state-sponsored, institutionalized, historical genocide denialism, such as it paradigmatically occurs in Turkey with regard to the Armenian genocide of 1915–16.First, I illustrate how genocide denialism produces reliable ignorance through factual andnormative distortions that aim at sustaining a system of Turkish domination of Armenians.Secondly, I demonstrate that under these conditions, hearers will reliably fail to meet thedependencies of a speaker testifying to genocide. Thirdly, I argue that in cases where thishappens to members of the former victim group, genocide denial is not only epistemicallyharmful, but will constitute an epistemic wrong insofar as it perpetuates testimonial oppressionof members of the former victim group.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Division/Institute:	06 Faculty of Humanities > Department of Art and Cultural Studies > Institute of Philosophy
Graduate School:	Graduate School of the Arts and Humanities (GSAH)
UniBE Contributor:	Altanian, Melanie
Subjects:	100 Philosophy
Funders:	[42] Schweizerischer Nationalfonds
Language:	English
Submitter:	Melanie Altanian
Date Deposited:	05 Feb 2020 11:40
Last Modified:	05 Dec 2022 15:36
URI:	https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/139283