Loss of Epistemic Self-Determination in the Anthropocene. Issue 2 (4th May 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Werkheiser, Ian
• Is Part Of: Ethics, policy & environment. Volume 20:Issue 2(2017)
• Page Start: 156
• Page End: 167
• Publication Date: 2017-05-04
• Subjects: Environmental ethics -- Periodicals; Environmental policy -- Periodicals; 179.1
• DOI: 10.1080/21550085.2017.1342966
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2155-0085

Abstract

Abstract: One serious harm facing communities in the Anthropocene is epistemic loss. This is increasingly recognized as a harm in international policy discourses around adaptation to climate change. Epistemic loss is typically conceived of as the loss of a corpus of knowledge, or less commonly, as the further loss of epistemic methodologies. In what follows, I argue that epistemic loss also can involve the loss of epistemic self-determination, and that this framework can help to usefully examine adaptation policies.