ABSTRACT

The debate over safe spaces has traditionally been cast as a conflict between competing goals. On the one hand we have epistemic goals such as the pursuit of truth and the free exchange of ideas. On the other we have social, political, and ethical goals centered on protecting marginalized students from emotional and psychological trauma. Even proponents of safe space initiatives will often distinguish them from brave spaces, where brave spaces aim at truth as opposed to safety. Using concepts drawn from recent literature in social epistemology, this essay reframes the debate by developing a new epistemological conception of safe spaces. On this conception, the purpose of safe space initiatives is to safeguard marginalized students and colleagues against epistemic oppression and epistemic injustice and to promote recognition of situated knowledge, thereby promoting the pursuit of truth and the free exchange of ideas. These goals demonstrably align with the practices employed within traditional safe space initiatives, but also suggest new directives for creating and sustaining safe spaces that are explicitly aimed at combatting the effects of epistemic oppression. I show how this conception helps to defuse some of the traditional objections to creating safe spaces within academic settings.

摘要

传统上，关于安全空间的争论被认为是相互竞争的目标之间的冲突。一方面，我们有认识论的目标，例如追求真理和思想的自由交流。另一方面，我们有社会，政治和道德目标，重点是保护边缘化学生免受情感和心理创伤。即使是安全空间倡议的支持者，也常常会将其与勇敢的空间区分开来，在勇敢的空间中，勇敢的空间是针对真理而不是安全。利用社会认识论中最新文献的概念，本文通过发展安全空间的新认识论概念，重新构筑了辩论。基于此构想，安全空间计划的目的是保护边缘化的学生和同事免受认知压迫和认知不公，并促进对情境知识的认识，从而促进对真理的追求和思想的自由交流。这些目标明显符合传统安全空间倡议中采用的做法，但也提出了创建和维持安全空间的新指令，这些指令明确地旨在对抗认知压迫的影响。我将展示这个概念如何帮助化解一些传统的反对意见，以便在学术环境中创建安全的空间。