Document Type
Article
Publication Date
11-25-2024
Keywords
Moral complicity, Silence, Expressive action, Moral responsibility, Duty to Object, Deliberative Duties
Abstract
Silence sometimes constitutes moral complicity. We see this when protestors take to the streets against racial injustice. Think of signs with the words: “Silence is com- plicity.” We see this in instances of sexual harassment, when we learn that many knew and said nothing. We see this in cases of wrongdoing within a company or organization, when it becomes clear that many were aware of the negligent or crimi- nal activity and stayed silent. In cases like this we consider agents morally com- plicit in virtue of their silence. Flagrant injustices cry out for action, and sometimes remaining silent amounts to complicity in those injustices. What philosophy owes us is an account of how it could be that silence constitutes complicity. In this paper I argue that one possibility is an account grounded in problematic deliberative con- tribution. The core idea of “deliberative complicity,” as I call it, is that agents have moral duties concerning the moral deliberation of other agents, and failures in these duties can amount to moral complicity. For example, an agent aware that a col- league is sexually harassing his students has a deliberative obligation to report the misconduct, and their silence in failing to report constitutes a failure to fulfill their deliberative obligation, a failure that grounds their moral complicity in the harass- ment. If my argument is successful, it provides a distinctive reason to prefer a delib- erative account of moral complicity: it can capture cases of silent complicity that other views of moral complicity cannot. And further, by turning our attention toward our interpersonal deliberative obligations, a deliberative account of complicity can incorporate helpful resources from recent work in social epistemology and speech act theory as we set out to determine when and why silence amounts to complicity. And when it does, we cannot stay silent. We must speak.
Citation
Donohue, J.L.A. Silence as complicity and action as silence. Philos Stud 181, 3499–3519 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-024-02246-z
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