Communicative injustice

In this thesis I explore the idea of communicative injustice. That is, I consider the thought that some of our communicative practices are so vital to our flourishing existence as human persons that we suffer an injustice in certain circumstances when these practices fail. For instance, sometimes the ability to successfully communicate consent or refusal means the difference between maintaining authority over our bodies and becoming victims of rape and assault. Sometimes the ability to communicate successfully about an experience like sexual harassment means the difference between vulnerability to confusion, self-doubt, and further injustice and the ability to understand and combat that injustice from a situation of relative epistemic security. I argue that there are conditions under which we should be able to communicate certain things, and that sometimes an inability to communicate constitutes an injustice. That is, under my account, a person may become a victim of injustice when certain kinds of communication become impossible for her.