Tesitmony As Significance Negotiation
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Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 2-4-2016 12:00 AM Tesitmony as Significance Negotiation Jennifer F. Epp The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Dr. Tracy Isaacs The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Philosophy A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Doctor of Philosophy © Jennifer F. Epp 2016 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Epistemology Commons, Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons, and the Feminist Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Epp, Jennifer F., "Tesitmony as Significance Negotiation" (2016). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 3697. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/3697 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Abstract This dissertation addresses the following questions: How should epistemologists conceptualize testimony? What do people use testimony to do? And why does “what people do” with testimony matter epistemically? In response to these questions I both define and characterize testimony. While doing so I argue for the following answers, given here very briefly: What do people do when they testify? They tell each other things and avow that those things are true, offering their statements to others as reasons to believe. More importantly, they interact with each other in order to negotiate about significance. Why do these activities matter epistemically? Because by engaging in them people generate understanding, as well as knowledge that no one involved may have had prior to negotiation. Not only that, but they generate collective hermeneutic resources—conceptual tools with which to interpret and understand. In so doing, they not only learn, they create significance and (re)construct social worlds, living together as epistemic, moral, and political agents. So, how should epistemologists conceptualize testimony? They should treat it as a particular speech act that most often occurs as part of a testimonial exchange—an interactive, interpretive, dialogical activity that people use in order to negotiate about significance and generate understanding. This characterization of testimony is an important contribution because it: reveals some of the distinctively social aspects of testimonial knowledge and understanding, suggests better answers to epistemic questions about testimony than those based on typical characterizations in the literature, leads discussion on the topic in a number of new directions, and lays a foundation for an ethics of testimony that cannot be separated from epistemic concerns. Neither can those concerns be separated from social, moral, and political considerations. The position thus pushes epistemologists to investigate the intertwining of epistemic, moral, and political agency. Keywords Testimony, significance, negotiation, speech acts, telling, social epistemology, feminist epistemology, epistemic agency, social construction, transmission versus generation, reductionism versus anti-reductionism, Gadamer. Acknowledgments Thank you, many times over, to Tracy Isaacs for her guidance, encouragement, questions, suggestions, direction, and unfailing support throughout this project, and for her mentorship in other important areas. I had the best supervisor. Ever. (I avow that this is true and you should accept my testimony.) Many thanks also to Helen Fielding. Though any errors are my own, chapter three would not be what it is without her thoughtful comments and insight. Your feedback has been invaluable and I appreciate that generosity. It will continue to change how I think and how I relate to the work of others, some of whom I encountered only because of you. I am equally grateful to Charles Weijer, who has a rare talent for bringing people together to create a lively and engaged community of scholars. During my time at Western, Charles created the SEER Lab, which eventually became the Rotman Institute of Philosophy. I directly benefited from the intellectual, social, and financial support that you made possible and I am very thankful. Your support enabled me to continue with my studies. Thank you also for conversation, comments, and for allowing me to sit in on your course on testimony. My thanks to Lorraine Code for her very generous and careful thought as an examiner. I will endeavor to do justice to your insights in future work on this project. Your pioneering writing in this field opened up conceptual space for this kind of investigation. I am similarly indebted to Amanda Grzyb for suggesting important future avenues of investigation, and to Kathleen Okrhulik for drawing attention to areas in this work that require further consideration. Thanks to Samantha Brennan for her mentorship, and for invaluable opportunities to write and present together, to Rob Stainton for consistently offering revealing questions, and to Anthony Skelton, Chris Smeenk, Rueven Brandt, and to everyone who provided feedback on my work. Thank you to Melissa Jacquart and the Rotman Women’s Writing Circle, and to Veromi Arsiridam, Alida Lieberman, Andrea Epp, Kim Epp, Janet Epp, Nic McGinnis, and Tracy Isaacs for help with proofreading. Sarah Lublink, Julia Watt, Veromi Arsiridam, ii Rebecca MacIntosh, Katy Fulfer, and Dario Cankovic thank you for your friendship. Alison Weir, made graduate school seem like an option. Thank you for revealing that possibility. I am grateful to the Government of Canada and the Government of Ontario for financial support for this work through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and the Ontario Graduate Scholarship program. Thank you also to the City of London for childcare support, to Victoria Hospital for ensuring we would need that support, to many people from HVPI and TVCC, to the London Public Library, and to the YMCA of Western Ontario. To my family: All of you. I am fortunate to have grown up with a group of people who think critically together, love each other, and who have provided me with every opportunity to experience and learn. Thank you to Baba and Dai for providing an excellent education, and to Baba for LD testing early on. Thank you to Oma and Opa for teaching me how to work (everything you need to know you can learn on a farm). Baba stood up for what she knew and Oma, you demonstrate remarkable epistemic humility. I needed to learn both. All four of you modelled determination, perseverance, and resilience in your own unique ways, and you gave us community. Thank you to Mom and to Dad for everything – to Dad for teaching me to think philosophically, to Mom for being there whenever I need to figure something out, and to you both for far more. Mom and Shirley you are my oddly juxtaposed feminist role models. Andrew, you are so important and loved. Most of all thank you to Nic and Wren. Nic thank you for providing encouragement, substantive discussion, and for doing the tangible work that allowed me to write. Wren, I took your card to work every day. “I love you. Even when you are in Montreal.” Finally, thank you to Sue Campbell and Rockney Jacobsen. I am here because of you. iii Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................ i Acknowledgments............................................................................................................... ii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... iv List of Tables .................................................................................................................... vii Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 Part One: Defining Testimony ............................................................................................ 9 Chapter 1 ........................................................................................................................... 10 1 Telling .......................................................................................................................... 10 1.1 Speech Acts ........................................................................................................... 12 1.2 Telling Requires Both Tellers and Recipients ...................................................... 14 1.2.1 Tellers/Attesters are Required ................................................................... 14 1.2.2 Recipients are Required (telling requires address) ................................... 15 1.2.3 Recipients are Required (address must be received) ................................ 16 1.3 Telling Does Not Require Recipient Understanding ............................................ 19 1.4 Accidental Telling is Possible ............................................................................... 20 1.5 Telling vs. Revealing ............................................................................................ 24 1.6 Telling vs. Informing ............................................................................................ 25 1.7 Telling vs. Showing .............................................................................................. 28 1.8