Socratic Salon: Cancel Culture

​"Cancel culture” is a widely-invoked but often ill-defined concept in contemporary discourse. While few deny the existence of cancel culture, there is debate about what counts as ‘canceling’, and what particular instances of canceling are justified (if any), as well as debates about whether this is truly a new phenomenon, and if so, what its causes are.

​Discussion surrounding cancel culture raises a number of significant philosophical questions: to what degree should people be held accountable for moral offenses in the past, even if they have changed as people? What are the ethics of exposing the private lives of individuals to global scrutiny? How do we maintain civil society in a morally pluralistic world and avoid mob justice and the “tyranny of the majority”? What is the role of the internet and social media in all of this? Many more questions could be added to this list.

​Join us as we discuss and debate this topic of high relevance to the contemporary moment.

Readings (Optional):

A simple theory of cancel culture:
https://josephheath.substack.com/p/a-simple-theory-of-cancel-culture?r=nl0q3&utm_medium=ios&triedRedirect=true

France’s war on woke, from the salons to the cinemas:
https://www.politico.eu/article/france-war-on-woke-laboratoire-de-la-republique/

China’s Nationalist Cancel Culture: https://thediplomat.com/2021/09/chinas-nationalist-cancel-culture/

Why philosophers should worry about cancel culture: https://josephheath.substack.com/p/why-philosophers-should-worry-about?r=nl0q3&utm_medium=ios&triedRedirect=true