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Conceptualising Violence as a Problem of Epistemology

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The Epistemology of Violence

Part of the book series: Critical Political Theory and Radical Practice ((CPTRP))

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Abstract

This chapter presents the idea that the underlying cause of violence is a specific type of epistemology which the author terms ‘violent epistemology’. The chapter presents a detailed a conceptual framework for understanding the specific cognitive mechanisms comprising violent epistemology, and how this is made possible by the nature of human consciousness and its agency. This multidisciplinary formulation draws on neuroscience, psychology, learning theory, and philosophy, including phenomenology and early Frankfurt School critical theory. The author explains how this formulation moves away from current relativistic definitions of ‘epistemic violence’ in which different epistemologies are perceived as having equal ‘truth’ (with the violence occurring when one group or individual’s epistemology is afforded primacy over others), presenting instead the argument that some epistemologies can be more or less violent, and produce more or less ‘truth’ than others, with violence occurring when a more violent epistemology is employed. The role of emotions and motivations in the enactment of violent epistemology is also discussed.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Throwing the baby out with the bathwater, as postmodernism could be criticised for having done.

  2. 2.

    By discussing core motivations or ‘drives’, I am not attempting to make ontological assertions about ‘human nature’, but rather to identify what appear to be pertinent themes for the study of violence as a historical human problem.

  3. 3.

    This is not a presumption that humans are separate from nature, but rather refers to when a person perceives himself as such.

  4. 4.

    This is a reference to an unhealthy psychology, rather than physical disease.

  5. 5.

    The term ‘subceive’ refers to perception that is not necessarily experienced as an explicit awareness—that is, the subject may feel threatened but not explicitly admit this to themselves, may deny awareness of the feeling, or may tell themselves that this is something other than threatenedness.

  6. 6.

    The idea of ‘accurate symbolisation’ points towards the concept of non-violent epistemology. I discuss this in more detail in Chap. 8. The behaviour of the teacher who trapped the children in the classroom with tables can be seen as one example of a self-preserving ‘process of defence’.

  7. 7.

    Rogers defines ‘intensionality’ as when the subject ‘tends to see experience in absolute and unconditional terms, to overgeneralise, to be dominated by concept or belief, to fail to anchor his reactions in space and time, to confuse fact and evaluation, to rely upon abstractions rather than upon reality-testing’ (1959, p. 205).

  8. 8.

    Characterised by closure to, and rejection of, certain particularities of experience.

  9. 9.

    For a discussion on frustration, see Fromm (1973).

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  1. Norwich, Norfolk, UK

    Beth M. Titchiner

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Titchiner, B.M. (2019). Conceptualising Violence as a Problem of Epistemology. In: The Epistemology of Violence. Critical Political Theory and Radical Practice. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12911-8_3

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