Epistemic Injustice and Scientific Knowledge Distribution

Abstract

This paper describes two kinds of epistemic injustice – discriminatory and distributive. The former is provided by Miranda Fricker; the latter is based on David Coady’s work which means unequal access to epistemic goods, especially knowledge. I will firstly identify distributive epistemic justice within an epistemic structure of society and discuss its basic principles for distributing knowledge. Then I will argue that there is Fricker’s discriminatory epistemic injustice in scientific knowledge distribution. And this kind of epistemic injustice will finally lead to distributive epistemic injustice. The possible way to diminish these epistemic injustices is expanding the diversity in science.