Epistemological Double Standards

The practice of applying different epistemological standards to different kinds of knowledge or different knowers—demanding rigorous proof from marginalized perspectives while accepting hand-waving from dominant ones, requiring evidence from outsiders while taking insider claims on faith. Epistemological Double Standards are what make knowledge production political: who gets to know, whose knowledge counts, what standards apply to whom. They're the signature of epistemic injustice, the mechanism by which some ways of knowing are privileged and others marginalized.

Example: "He demanded rigorous evidence from indigenous knowledge systems while accepting Western science's claims on faith. Epistemological Double Standards in action: different standards for different knowers, different rules for different knowledge. The double standard was invisible to him, which is how it maintained epistemic injustice."

Epistemological Double Standards by Dumu The Void March 10, 2026