Author: Leonie Smith

Leonie Smith is a Leverhulme Early Career researcher in Philosophy at the University of Manchester. Her work centres on the epistemic, ontological and material harms faced by people living in poverty and on the margins of society (within the UK and globally). Prior to returning to Manchester in 2022, Leonie was a Lecturer in Philosophy at Cardiff University.

Find out more about her work here: http://stirlingbus.com/leoniesmith/

It is not enough to listen carefully – we also have to identify who is not in the epistemic room

By Leonie Smith

On 15 February, 2021

In Academia, Duties, Gender, General, Moral values

Shawn raises his hand and asks quietly: “Mr Warner?” […] Mr Warner does not hear Shawn or notice his raised hand. Instead, Mr Warner is fielding questions from a group of middle-class students […] Shawn sighs and puts his hand down (Calarco 2018: 164).

Post by Leonie Smith and Alfred Archer

Introduction

When middle-class students are regularly heard in the classroom and working-class students, such as Shawn, are regularly not heard, and when news reporters consistently fail to seek out women experts to the same extent that they seek out men experts, something unjust is happening. In a recent paper, we argue that this something is an epistemic attention deficit.

Trump vs Twitter: who has the right to do what?

By Leonie Smith

On 19 October, 2020

In Governance, Liberty, Rights

“Twitter is completely stifling free speech, and I, as President, won’t allow it to happen!” Donald Trump, 27 May 2020 – published on Twitter (of course).

Introduction

Who has the right, to do what, on Twitter? Donald Trump’s falling out with Twitter, after Twitter’s censuring of certain tweets, has inspired accusations of bias and misbehaviour on all sides, none of which is likely to convince anyone not already convinced. But if we step outside the specific debate around Twitter’s current and future legal immunity, perhaps we can find at least one principle that might gain broad agreement: that no person has the right to do that which would prevent another person from being a person at all. And this suggests that Twitter has every right to censure Trump – and that Trump may have little right to act to censure Twitter in return.