Implications for Religious Epistemology
In this lecture, we are taking a look at how social location is important for epistemological testimony. Social location is one’s role or place within their community; particularly as it pertains to the relationships and roles you have within all the levels of society be it personal, formal, informal…etc.
First, we must consider one’s placement within the social location and how that impacts their listening and understanding of the epistemic evidence. Therefore, if you have the speaker outside the relevant epistemic community while the hearer is inside, the reaction and outcome may be entirely different from a situation when both the speaker and listener are inside. As was discussed in the professor’s previous lecture, when the speaker is outside the epistemic community, his evidence will have to pass a much more rigorous set of standards for it to be deemed reliable enough to be passed on to the rest of the community. On the other hand, when both speaker and hearer are within the same community, the standards are much more relaxed as they both share and are thus governed by the same norms as it relates to the transmission and distribution of epistemic evidence. The professor also takes a look at what would happen if you had a speaker and two hearers, and one hearer and the speaker are within the community whereas the second hearer is outside the community. In this case, both listeners hear the same evidence but are going to evaluate it differently. This is natural as one listener is within the same community as the speaker while the other listener belongs to a different epistemic community with a different set of norms. Thus, it is clear to see how social location can greatly impact both the speaker and the hearer as it pertains not only to the transmission but also to the distribution of testimony.
Secondly, the professor also talks about how moral and practical aspects within the social community have epistemic consequences. This is because the effectiveness of how one tells or hears testimony depends on one’s relationships and roles within the social community. The professor outlines several reasons why this is so: trust, authority, expertise which all have practical and moral dimensions and form the basis of many of our relationships whether it be informal, personal, institutional, or social. For instance, many people join a church/ temple/ mosque or clubs and school, and they form relationships within these institutions -as well as outside of any formal institutions- largely based on shared practical and moral values. This is the basis on which relationships are initiated and developed.
If we look more deeply into what these moral or practical values are, take for example the relationship between a lawyer and their client. The communication between the lawyer and client must be reliable because 1. the client is paying the lawyer and therefore acquiring a service 2. the lawyer has his reputation within the legal community to uphold so is inclined to do his best for his client 3. the client needs a/their lawyer to help him/her legally so it’s in their best interest to help achieve the most transparent communication that will help the lawyer build their case. In this manner, every relationship we make is morally and practically based.
Finally, we must take into consideration certain aspects which would alter the transmission process. The problem may lie with the speaker, the hearer, or the broader social environment. For example, we have to consider the personal character of the speaker; they may be unable to earn the trust of the hearer because they are not morally sound, they lack motivation or the intellectual capacity to speak in a manner that encourages trust in the listener.
The professor looks at this more specifically by citing the decades-long problem that the Catholic Church has faced over claims of sexual abuse within the church. The church’s failure to properly address and deal with this issue has severely undermined the church’s moral authority among its members. Many members of the church are finding it increasingly difficult to trust in their church leaders and thus their testimony. This has led to discontentment within the Catholic community as well as a purge of many parishioners who chose to leave the Catholic establishment altogether.
