Gray, Aaron (2025) Hushing-up: a social epistemic practice for overcoming partisan ignorance. [Preprint]

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Abstract

Much work in feminist social epistemology shares the basic assumption that ignorance generated by silencing (and related phenomena) is undesirable. While true in many contexts, I depart from that consensus, introducing and offering a philosophical account of a social epistemic practice that I term ‘hushing-up.’ This practice has emerged organically in response and in resistance to sectarian bigotry in Northern Ireland (NI), and contributes to post-conflict transitions away from social and political polarisation and its derivative harms to individuals and collectives. In spaces where hushing-up is deployed, ignorance of peoples’ community background is intentionally cultivated as a strategy in opposition to bigotry, while bigoted or sectarian displays incur social costs. Positioning hushing-up against existing accounts of political ignorance, and contributing to the idea of an epistemology of ignorance, I distinguish between performative partisanship (involving ignorance driven by social rewards for showing group allegiance) and pressured partisanship (involving ignorance driven by the avoidance of social sanctions for displaying indicators of disloyalty to a group). On the account I defend, shifts in social norms are central to addressing some forms of harmful ignorance. I argue that hushing-up succeeds in doing this in two ways: first, by reducing the rationality of pressured partisanship by providing alternative social support to that provided in polarised social spaces such that the cost of dissent is lowered; and secondly, by disincentivising performative partisanship through increasing the difficulty of identifying targets and ensuring that bigoted displays are met with disapproval in spaces where that norm is in force.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Gray, Aaron ajg326@georgetown.edu 0009-0005-6608-095X
Keywords:	Hushing-up Political polarisation Epistemology of ignorance Social epistemology Epistemic violence Silencing Post-conflict societies Northern Ireland
Subjects:	General Issues > Ethical Issues General Issues > Evidence General Issues > Feminist Approaches Specific Sciences > Psychology > Judgment and Decision Making General Issues > Social Epistemology of Science
Depositing User:	Mr Aaron Gray
Date Deposited:	25 Jan 2026 13:39
Last Modified:	25 Jan 2026 13:39
Item ID:	28004
Official URL:	https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-025-05333-8
DOI or Unique Handle:	https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-025-05333-8
Subjects:	General Issues > Ethical Issues General Issues > Evidence General Issues > Feminist Approaches Specific Sciences > Psychology > Judgment and Decision Making General Issues > Social Epistemology of Science
Date:	2 December 2025
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/28004

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