Oppression and Responsibility
eBook - PDF

Oppression and Responsibility

A Wittgensteinian Approach to Social Practices and Moral Theory

  1. English
  2. PDF
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Oppression and Responsibility

A Wittgensteinian Approach to Social Practices and Moral Theory

About this book

Combating homophobia, racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination and violence in our society requires more than just focusing on the overt acts of prejudiced and abusive individuals. The very intelligibility of such acts, in fact, depends upon a background of shared beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors that together form the context of social practices in which these acts come to have the meaning they do. This book, inspired by Wittgenstein as well as feminist and critical race theory, shines a critical light on this background in order to show that we all share more responsibility for the persistence of oppressive social practices than we commonly suppose—or than traditional moral theories that connect responsibility just with the actions, rights, and liberties of individuals would lead us to believe.

First sketching a nonessentialist view of rationality, and emphasizing the role of power relations, Peg O'Connor then examines in subsequent chapters the relationship between a variety of "foreground" actions and "background" practices: burnings of African American churches, hate speech, child sexual abuse, coming out as a gay or lesbian teenager, and racial integration of public and private spaces. These examples serve to illuminate when our "language games" reinforce oppression and when they allow possibilities for resistance. Attending to the background, O'Connor argues, can give us insight into ways of transforming the nature and meaning of foreground actions.

Frequently asked questions

Yes, you can cancel anytime from the Subscription tab in your account settings on the Perlego website. Your subscription will stay active until the end of your current billing period. Learn how to cancel your subscription.
At the moment all of our mobile-responsive ePub books are available to download via the app. Most of our PDFs are also available to download and we're working on making the final remaining ones downloadable now. Learn more here.
Perlego offers two plans: Essential and Complete
  • Essential is ideal for learners and professionals who enjoy exploring a wide range of subjects. Access the Essential Library with 800,000+ trusted titles and best-sellers across business, personal growth, and the humanities. Includes unlimited reading time and Standard Read Aloud voice.
  • Complete: Perfect for advanced learners and researchers needing full, unrestricted access. Unlock 1.4M+ books across hundreds of subjects, including academic and specialized titles. The Complete Plan also includes advanced features like Premium Read Aloud and Research Assistant.
Both plans are available with monthly, semester, or annual billing cycles.
We are an online textbook subscription service, where you can get access to an entire online library for less than the price of a single book per month. With over 1 million books across 1000+ topics, we’ve got you covered! Learn more here.
Look out for the read-aloud symbol on your next book to see if you can listen to it. The read-aloud tool reads text aloud for you, highlighting the text as it is being read. You can pause it, speed it up and slow it down. Learn more here.
Yes! You can use the Perlego app on both iOS or Android devices to read anytime, anywhere — even offline. Perfect for commutes or when you’re on the go.
Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Yes, you can access Oppression and Responsibility by Peg O’Connor,Peg O'Connor in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Philosophy & Feminist Literary Criticism. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Copyright
  3. Contents
  4. Preface: Why Wittgenstein?
  5. Acknowledgments
  6. Abbreviations
  7. 1 The Necessity of Practices and Backgrounds
  8. 2 The Stability of Rationality
  9. 3 Conspiracies and Connect the Dots: The Search for Motive in the Church Burnings
  10. 4 The Meaning of Assaultive Speech: Its Harmful Uses
  11. 5 Moving to New Boroughs: Transforming the World by Inventing Language Games
  12. 6 Lesbian Barroom Brawls: Racial Integration in the 1950s
  13. 7 If Everybody's Responsible, Then Nobody Is
  14. Postscript: Contra Determinism and Fatalism
  15. Bibliography
  16. Index
  17. Back Cover