We are currently working on migrating the OAPEN Library to the CERN Data Center. During this time, no new titles will be added to the Library or current titles will be updated.
Thank you for your patience!
Chapter 12 Bridging the Divide
Imagining Across Experiential Perspectives
Abstract
Ch. 12 Can one have imaginative access to experiential perspectives vastly different from one s own? Can one successfully imagine what it s like to live a life very different from one s own? These questions are particularly pressing in contemporary society as we try to bridge racial, ethnic, and gender divides. Yet philosophers have often expressed considerable pessimism in this regard. It is often thought that the gulf between vastly different experiential perspectives cannot be bridged. This chapter explores the case for this pessimism. Though the case is often less implicit, the chapter identifies two different arguments that can be found in the literature: the Epistemic Arrogance argument and the Too Big a Gulf argument. Both arguments are found to be considerably weaker than is usually thought. But even if the case for pessimism is unsuccessful, discussion of that case suggests the importance of treading carefully in taking up imaginative explorations of different experiential perspectives. The chapter thus concludes with a cautionary note in this regard.
Keywords
experiential perspectives, epistemic arroganceDOI
10.4324/9781003041979-17ISBN
9780367480561, 9781032018935, 9781003041979Publisher
Taylor & FrancisPublisher website
https://taylorandfrancis.com/Publication date and place
2021Imprint
RoutledgeClassification
Philosophy: epistemology and theory of knowledge
Philosophy of mind