08BallingerR1 Essays - Discrimination, Human Behavior, Abuse

Response Questions #1 1. T estimonial injustice is a type of injustice formed by a person listening to someone sharing knowledge. The listener immediately forms a prejudice about the speaker based on his or her appearance and qualities. This developed prejudice alters how the listener interprets the information they hear. The listener belittles the person speaking and thus discredits the information altogether. The speaker's information could be completely factual, but due to the listeners prejudice it is questioned. The listener will most likely express to others that the speaker is reporting false information. Also, the listener may tell others about more flaws about the speaker that are untrue, solely because of the prejudice. An example of T estimonial injustice could be if a student has doubts about the information provided by their professor, due to the professor's Christian beliefs. Professors study information for years and become experts, and they are also trained to teach others. So, this student formed a bias solely based on the appearance of the professor. 2. H ermeneutical injustice is a type of injustice that happens to a person during an experience, in which the person cannot make sense of it due to lack of this type of experience in society. This Person has no was to figure out what they are going through, because in society this certain kind of thing is not spoken of. Since there is a shortage of information on the experience, the person might not know how to deal with the occurrence. The person will first think about what they are feeling and try to make sense of it using their own immediate knowledge. Subsequently, if society hides these instances or has a lack of similar experiences to refer to, the person will be unable to figure it out. Next the person may seek to the internet to see if they can seek material of like incidents, which is dependent on how society portrays this certain experience. Then if he or she still cannot figure it out they might seek the advice of another person. An example of hermeneutical inj ustice is if someone is born a certain gender, but feels as if they are a different gender. This is unjust because the person should be able to learn about themselves, but due to the lack of information they have a difficult time. 3. When trapped, the prisoners would lack depth perception and the ability to fathom these objects in three dimensions. Also, the only source of light is from a reflection of a fire, so their eyesight is accustomed to darkness. The puppet masters decide what the prisoners see and hear, thus they are narrating what the prisoners believe to be true. The prisoners see figures in the shadows, but they have no outside source telling them what the shadows are of. Thus, they are left to themselves to decide what to make of the sounds and shadows using their imagination. When they are first released from the cave, they cannot discern what is true and what is untrue in the real world. But eventually they begin to think about the objects as they are, not just as they appear in shadows. They make new assumptions and start to piece together the three-dimensional world. 4. Realizing that two sticks are not perfectly equal proves that equality must be innate because the sense of equableness is shown from birth. For example, if one baby is given a cookie but sees that another baby is given two cookies, the first baby knows it was unfair. No person could possibly have communicated to the babies what equality means since they are so young. Thus, they must have some innate recollection of equality in order to distinguish the difference between one cookie versu s two. As people grow older, they become wiser, and they can determine equality in more difficult situations. But, they are building off of the innate information about equality that they were born with. They are not learning what equality is, or being taught what is equal and what is not since they already know.