Gaslighting and Epistemic Injustice

Conference on Gaslighting and Epistemic Injustice

Claremont McKenna College,

September 21-23, 2017  

Over the past 10 years, following the publication of Miranda Fricker’s groundbreaking book, Epistemic Injustice: Power & the Ethics of Knowing, philosophers have begun increasingly to attend to issues of epistemic injustice, a phenomenon that occurs when individuals are wronged in their capacity as knowers.  Epistemic injustice often arises in cases involving differing positions of social privilege, where prejudice and power combine to undermine an individual’s own testimony. 

In this conference, we aim to focus specifically on distinctive forms of epistemic injustice produced through lying, misinformation, manipulation, and deceit. A paradigm example is the phenomenon known as “gaslighting.”  In the 1944 film Gas Light, Gregory Anton slowly and cruelly manipulates his wife Paula into thinking that she is going insane.  Having deliberately caused the lights in their home to dim, Gregory insists that Paula must be imagining it whenever the subject is raised.  This depiction of Paula’s plight – made especially poignant by a brilliant performance from Ingrid Bergman – has given rise to the term “gaslighting,” used to refer to one individual or individuals causing another to question their own perceptions, beliefs, and memories – and even their own sanity – through a series of manipulations, deceptions, and lies.

The conference is organized by Amy Kind and Adrienne Martin on behalf of the Claremont McKenna College Department of Philosophy.  We are grateful to the Dean of Faculty’s Office and the Gould Center for Humanistic Studies for their financial support.

For questions, please contact Amy Kind at [email protected].