Stories That Wrong and Stories That Repair

Stories are as important as they are ubiquitous, depicting everything from the origin of the universe to the driving force behind an isolated act by a single individual. But stories do not just depict what has actually occurred—they can also exert tremendous power over what does or even can occur. How the unfolding of events is presented in a narrative, for instance, or the layers of a person’s character are sketched, can have monumental consequences for the people involved in them. Taking the role that narratives play in the United States criminal legal system as a paradigmatic case, it is shown that stories that falsely demonize or vilify a person can result in distinctively epistemic wrongs and that “counterstories” can function as a crucial form of epistemically reparative work. It is then argued that wronging another person in a way demanding of epistemic reparations does not necessarily involve having false or even unwarranted beliefs about him. This is supported through the introduction of the concept of “misknowing,” which applies when only a narrow, one-dimensional set of facts are known about a person, often centering on those that are most injurious. Misknowing is often fueled by “flat stories” about the person in question, which depict him in static, one-dimensional, and psychologically simplistic terms. When such stories are grounded in injustice, epistemic reparations can require “rounder stories,” which portray a person in dynamic, multidimensional, and psychologically complex terms. In this way, while stories can epistemically wrong a person in life-altering ways, they can also be the source of the life-restoring epistemic reparations that are demanded in response.

Programme

18.00 hrs | Open to public

18.30 hrs | Welcome/opening words

18.45 hrs | Start of lecture followed by discussion with audience

20.00 hrs | Reception

21.15 hrs | End

About Jennifer Lackey

Jennifer Lackey is the Wayne and Elizabeth Jones Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Law (courtesy) at Northwestern University, Founding Director of the Northwestern Prison Education Program, and Senior Research Associate at the African Centre for Epistemology and Philosophy of Science at the University of Johannesburg.

Lackey’s research is primarily in social epistemology. She is the author of over 60 articles and three books, including her recent Criminal Testimonial Injustice, which won the 2024 North American Society for Social Philosophy Book Award. She is also the editor of five volumes and editor-in-chief of two journals, Philosophical Studies and Episteme. Lackey is the winner of the 2024 Humanitas Award, 2023 Horace Mann Medal, and the Lebowitz Prize for Philosophical Achievement and Contribution. She was elected President of the American Philosophical Association’s Central Division from 2021–2022 and has received grants and fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

About the Spinoza Lectures

Since 1995, the Philosophy Department of the University of Amsterdam has annually appointed a foreign philosopher to the Spinoza chair. As part of the appointment, the Spinoza professor gives a number of lectures intended for a broad audience that wants to stay informed about contemporary developments in philosophy.