KRINOSTIC INJUSTICE

This dissertation articulates a distinct kind of epistemic injustice which I dub “krinostic injustice” or injustice in respect of judgment (in Ancient Greek, the verb κρῑ́νω means “to decide” or “to judge”). Krinostic injustice occurs when a hearer accepts a speaker’s account of a sequence of basic events but unwarrantedly questions that speaker’s characterization of their experience. I argue that the epistemic harm done to the victim of this kind of epistemic injustice is not simply as a knower but as a competent judge of her experience. I argue that this form of epistemic injustice manifests in sexual assault trials, while keeping in mind its application to other contexts.