Abstract

The ability to control the direction of a conversation, which topics are raised, which questions are asked, and which lines of inquiry are followed, is a basic and powerful form of social control that has been under studied within the philosophy of language. This paper draws on work from formal pragmatics, social epistemology, and critical discourse analysis to identify the mechanisms by which social power influences who gets to set the question under discussion. In the process, it introduces the category of inquisitive injustice and identifies several underlying structural causes behind it. By making these mechanisms explicit, the paper aims to empower speakers to challenge existing but subtle forms of manipulation.