Ideology, Injustice, and Moral Ignorance

Sally Haslanger (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Abstract: There is no doubt that both individuals and social institutions play a role in causing ongoing social stratification and injustice.  So there is good reason why ethics tends to focus on the individual and political philosophy tends to focus on the state.  But persistent inequality is not simply a result of the bad or unjust actions of individuals or badly structured institutions. Actions and institutions depend on both material conditions and culture (and their interdependence).  The role of material conditions is widely recognized; it is less clear how culture plays a role.  In previous work I have argued that cultural schemas are ideological insofar as they organize us either (a) to respond to resources whose value is misconceived or (b) in relations of domination and subordination.  This offers two dimensions of ideology critique: we are valuing the wrong things, or the practices and structures that provide access to things of value are unjust.  In this paper I provide a sketch of how practices reveal, create, and occlude facts, including moral facts, and situate these results within a theory of ideology.