Abstract

It has recently been argued that to tackle social injustice, implicit biases and unjust social structures should be targeted equally because they sustain and ontologically overlap with each other. Here I develop this thought further by relating it to the hypothesis of extended cognition. I argue that if we accept common conditions for extended cognition then people’s implicit biases are often partly realized by and so extended into unjust social structures. This supports the view that we should counteract psychological and social contributors to injustice equally. But it also has a significant downside. If unjust social structures are part of people’s minds then dismantling these structures becomes more difficult than it currently is, as this will then require us to overcome widely accepted ethical and legal barriers protecting people’s bodily and personal integrity. Thus, while there are good grounds to believe that people’s biases and unjust social structures ontologically overlap, there are also strong ethical reasons to reject this view. Metaphysical and ethical intuitions about implicit bias hence collide in an important way.

Highlights

  • IntroductionWhether it is in the recurring killings of unarmed Black Americans (like George Floyd) by White policemen, the sexism in Hollywood (see #MeToo movement) or in EU politics (see the EU’s recent ‘sofa gate’), the xenophobic attacks on migrants and Asians (in the wake of COVID-19), ableism, or ageism, social injustice is too common

  • Whether it is in the recurring killings of unarmed Black Americans by White policemen,1 the sexism in Hollywood or in EU politics,2 the xenophobic attacks on migrants and Asians,3 ableism, or ageism, social injustice is too common

  • I noted that this view helps to argue that in eradicating social injustice, we should attend to biased minds and unjust social structures

Read more

Summary

Introduction

Whether it is in the recurring killings of unarmed Black Americans (like George Floyd) by White policemen, the sexism in Hollywood (see #MeToo movement) or in EU politics (see the EU’s recent ‘sofa gate’), the xenophobic attacks on migrants and Asians (in the wake of COVID-19), ableism, or ageism, social injustice is too common. I won’t commit to HEC but will settle with a conditional conclusion: If we endorse the main considerations that integrationists offer for the ontological overlap of minds and social structures and accept common conditions for extended cognition the assumption of the existence of extended implicit bias is supported. While I will suggest that we can’t dismiss the antecedent, even if we remain doubtful about HEC, the argument below will still help advance the theorizing on implicit bias, social justice, and HEC This is because it illustrates that the recent proposal to view implicit bias as partly located in social structures raises significant and difficult ethical challenges that have so far gone unnoticed by integrationists (and advocates of HEC).

Minds and Social Structure as One System
Arguments and Conditions for Extended Cognition
Revisiting Implicit Bias and Social Structures
An Argument Against Extended Implicit Bias
Supporting premise (1)
Supporting premise (2)
Supporting premise (3)
Implications
The Metaphysics and Ethics of Implicit Bias Collide
Conclusion
Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call