Complicity: A Minimalist Account for Our Maximally Messy Social World

Jules Salomone-Sehr (The Queen's College, Oxford)

The Collective Ethics Seminar: Online Presentation – 29 April 2024 - 15.15 - 16.45 CET / 09.15 - 10.45 EST

Jules Salomone-Sehr (Oxford University) – Complicity: A Minimalist Account for Our Maximally Messy Social World

On Monday 29 April 2024, Jules Salomone-Sehr will give an online presentation at the Collective Ethics Seminar entitled ‘Complicity: A Minimalist Account for Our Maximally Messy Social World’.

Abstract: I develop a minimalist account of complicity, one on which complicity is, roughly, a matter of participating, along with others, in the enactment of a wrongful plan of action. This minimalist account combines three features. First, it is non-psychologistic insofar as it does not require that the accomplice’s mental states register their participation in wrongdoing. Non-psychologism is encouraged by the law of complicity, in particular the doctrine of command responsibility that countenances negligent complicity and, thus, the possibility of unintentional and unwitting complicity. Non-psychologism is also called for by the complex entanglements typical of human sociality and, specifically, our often unintentional and unwitting participation in social oppression and structural injustice. Second, my account is non-moralistic insofar as it leaves open the possibility of blameless complicity—a possibility that often materializes in our social world as when one’s participation in wrongdoing is excusably ignorant. Third, my account is non-causalist insofar as, in my view, causally contributing to φ is not necessary for complicity in φ. Couched in terms of the notion of wrongful plan, the resulting minimalist account enables our concept of complicity to do its job, namely: to clarify our thinking about our deeply entangled responsibilities in our messy social world.

The online seminar is open for all to attend. The session starts at 15.15 CET / 09.15 EST. You can join the session via the following link: https://univienna.zoom.us/j/62736288881?pwd=SndEdTNoNlZtSzJqcmpabm5NaWIyUT09

For more information about the seminar and the schedule for 2024S, please see https://social.univie.ac.at/events/collective-ethics-seminar/.

We hope to see you at the seminar!

Kind regards,

Gunnar Björnsson (Stockholm University), Olle Blomberg (University of Gothenburg), and Niels de Haan (University of Vienna)