This paper presents an epistemic argument for reparations, proposing that race-based repair is necessary for advancing valid causal inference in social scientific research. The argument bypasses traditional moral debates by focusing on the methodological need for reparations to ensure the positivity assumption in causal inference, which is often violated in racially stratified societies. By addressing systemic disparities, reparations create conditions that enable robust scientific inquiry into causal relationships. The paper also explores how unaddressed racialized policies perpetuate stratification, hindering empirical research, and discusses the forward-looking epistemic approach of African American sociologists like W. E. B. Du Bois in linking knowledge and social justice.

Alexander Tolbert is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Quantitative Theory and Methods at Emory University. He received his PhD in Philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania in 2023.