Justice in the Distribution of Knowledge

Knowledge plays a vital role in promoting human flourishing, democratic citizenship, and in enabling societies to pursue justice. The opportunity to acquire much of this knowledge depends on the joint operation of institutions such as the news media, science, and education—what Kurtulmus and Irzik call the epistemic basic structure of society. When coupled with the widely shared commitment to political equality and equal opportunity to flourish, these truths carry an overlooked but profound implication: societies must be assessed not only by how they distribute income, rights, and opportunities, but also by how well and fairly their epistemic basic structure serves citizens' and society's knowledge needs. The book develops an account of distributive epistemic justice centered on two requirements. First, a just epistemic basic structure must provide citizens with a fair opportunity to acquire the knowledge they need to deliberate about their individual good, the common good, and how to pursue them. Second, it must produce and disseminate the knowledge that citizens and public officials require to comply with the demands of justice. Bringing political philosophy into conversation with philosophy of science, and drawing on extensive empirical research on institutions within the epistemic basic structure, Kurtulmus and Irzik diagnose structural forces that privilege some groups' knowledge needs, compromise the reliability of knowledge production, and undermine warranted trust. Through real-world cases and empirical studies, they show how distributive epistemic injustice limits access to central goods, entrenches political inequality, and hinders the pursuit of justice. In doing so, the book advances a unified framework for evaluating the epistemic basic structure, together with concrete reforms aimed at remedying existing injustices and securing a more just society.

Faik Kurtulmus is Associate Professor of Political Philosophy at Sabancı University, Istanbul. He received his DPhil in Political Theory from the University of Oxford. His research lies at the intersection of political philosophy, social epistemology, and philosophy of science, with particular interests in distributive justice and freedom of expression. He was awarded the British Academy Brian Barry Prize in Political Science in 2024. Gürol Irzik is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy of Science at Sabancı University, Istanbul. He received his PhD in History and Philosophy of Science from Indiana University Bloomington. He has published widely in philosophy of science and is co-author of Science, Philosophy, Education and Culture (Springer, 2005) and co-editor of Turkish Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science (Springer, 2005). He is a member of the Science Academy, Turkey, and has served on the editorial boards of leading journals in philosophy of science.