Cancel culture is a form of societal self-defense that becomes prominent particularly during periods of substantial moral upheaval. It can lead to the polarization of incompatible viewpoints if it is indiscriminately demonized. In this brief editorial letter, I consider framing cancel culture as an essentially contested concept (ECC), according to the theory of Walter B. Gallie, with the aim of establishing a groundwork for a more productive discourse on it. In particular, I propose that intermediate agreements (...) and principles of reasonableness can help refocus the debate on cancel culture towards democratic discourse, without blanket justification for every instance. In this context, asserting that cancel culture is an ECC does not dismiss the potential of achieving consensus on its shared core meaning or societal role. Like other similar ECCs, such as democracy or rule of law, it highlights the importance of contestations in shaping our collective understanding of the concept. (shrink)

In this article, I approach some phenomena seen predominantly on social-media sites that are grouped together as cancel culture with guidance from two major themes in Plato’s thought. In the first section, I argue that shame can play a constructive and valuable role in a person’s improvement, just as we see Socrates throughout Plato’s dialogues use shame to help his interlocutors improve. This insight can help us understand the value of shaming people online for, among other things, their (...) morally reprehensible views. In the second section, I argue that it is required for the proper functioning of democratic institutions that some views be excluded from the public sphere, which follows some Platonic ideas from the Laws. In neither case do I argue that this approach is good in an unqualified sense or even ultima facie good. However, I maintain that these important insights from Plato’s dialogues illuminate crucial aspects of how we should think about cancel culture. (shrink)

Science is critical and thrives on discourse. However, new challenges for science and academic freedom have arisen from an often-discussed cancel culture and an increasing demand for safe spaces, which are justified by their assumed protection against microaggressions. These phenomena can impede scientific progress and innovation by prohibiting certain thought processes and heterodox ideas that eventually result in new ideas, publications, statements, etc. In this paper, we use the approach of property rights ethics to shed light on these (...) phenomena, especially in academia. First, we argue that microaggressions must be generally tolerated according to property rights ethics as the starting point for discussion. Then, we analyze cancel culture and safe spaces in academia. To this end, we distinguish between two basic cases in the educational system. We show that cancel culture and safe spaces seem justifiable in a private education system but have no place in public, tax-funded universities from the perspective of property ethics. Our essay contributes, on the one hand, to the economic analysis of science and, on the other hand, to the ethical study of new phenomena in modern societies. (shrink)

Many view cancellation as a method for holding influential personalities accountable for bad behavior, while others think cancelling amounts to censorship and bullying. I hold that neither of these accounts are worth pursuing, especially if the aim is social progress. In this paper, I offer a situated account of cancellation and cancel culture, locating the phenomenon in our exclusionary history while examining the social dynamics of belief. When we situate cancel culture, we can see how problematic (...) instances of cancelling are embedded in ignorance. While combatting ignorance appears to call for a remedy rooted in feminist standpoint epistemology, there are risks in adopting naive practices of deference. Applying criticisms of epistemic injustice and adopting Táíwò’s elite capture framework, I explain how well-intentioned cancelling can work against social movements. Since epistemic trust mechanisms discourage self-reflection and belief revision, the relevant tactics for enacting social change—coalition politics and education—seem out of reach. I conclude by sketching cancel culture as a diagnostic tool: cancellation can be used appropriately in marginalized communities, but when it comes to combatting ignorance among privileged folks, we should view cancel culture as a method for determining where our social institutions are failing us. (shrink)

Cancel culture necessitates a thorough examination for optimizing the efficacy of reputation management and societal influence. It’s essential to assess its effectiveness in driving social change, recognize ethical nuances, and pinpoint potential issues. Originally a value-driven phenomenon, it has evolved into a manipulative tool, amplifying societal emotions. Despite attempts at crisis communication, it often fails to alleviate the consequences for individuals or businesses subjected to «cancellation». The purpose of the study. The article explores cancel culture as (...) a mechanism for social influence and activity, presenting it as an ambiguous phenomenon without clear positive or negative connotations. Methods. The study employed interdisciplinary and logical methods, incorporating systemic and functional approaches, to comprehensively analyze cancel culture. The logical-contradictory method characterized cancel culture as a neutral phenomenon. Content analysis of mass media, social networks, and other platforms was conducted to determine its impact on the public sphere. Results.The article delves into cancel culture within an instrumental context, scrutinizing its effects on influencers and the broader audience. It highlights trends in cancel culture and its significance in the media landscape. Examining its origins across historical contexts, from ancient Greece to Soviet denunciations, reveals cancel culture’s rise in popularity through internet influence. Its core aim is to attribute «violations» to individuals or their communicators, employing mechanics like mass negative reactions and imposing consequences such as boycotts, dismissals, and even death threats. Cancel culture introduces contradictions, resembling a «witch hunt» with the potential for unfair cancellations due to the presumption of innocence and challenges in proving guilt. It denies the right to make mistakes and impacts individuals differently across cultures. While effective on social media, cancel culture often shifts from broad campaigns to personal-level cancellations, capturing societal attention and influencing perceptions of canceled entities.Despite initial destructiveness, it can stimulate constructive discussion and shape public opinion, but risks include excessive sensitivity and the potential for aggression and psychological self-assertion. Cancel culture poses the danger of low personal responsibility, fostering manipulation and abuse. Sociocultural aspects involve the tolerance paradox and the influence of egocentrism on participants.Cancelling may become a tool for personal aggression rather than a quest for justice. Distinguishing real violations from exaggerated or outdated statements is crucial to avoid unjust sanctions. Despite its justice-seeking appearance, cancel culture often relies on emotions and subjective factors, emphasizing the need for careful case analysis. Conclusions. Cancel culture provides a space for discussion as it can serve as a tool for advocating social change and raises questions about the responsibility of influential individuals. However, it is manipulative and selective, and the examination of each cancellation case should consider potential bias and subjectivity. Another danger lies in the increasing sensitivity of audiences to content, which may lead to the perception of offensive material without considering the real context of events. (shrink)

This chapter critiques Greg Lukianoff, the president of the Foundation of Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) and the co-author of The Cancelling of the American Mind who proports to be a liberal democrat who is seeking to protect free speech and the diversity of ideas. However, an examination of the source of his founding and his underlying ideology reveals that he is in actually a center-Right activist seeking to hide his true intentions behind a false narrative and a set of (...) rhetorical tricks. In fact, one reason why Lukianoff is such an interesting example of our current culture war is that he helps to expose the true goals of the Right’s promotion of free speech and criticism of cancel culture. While people like Lukianoff would like us to think that they are just defending the liberal democratic value of free expression, what they are really doing is supporting a well-funded libertarian assault on public universities, the welfare state, progressive politics, and economic regulation. As part of a broad tax revolt from above, Lukianoff receives much of his funding from wealthy, Right-wing donors who are more interested in reducing taxes and shrinking the government than the open exchange of ideas at universities and beyond. (shrink)

Students often do not know how to respond in the face of difficult situations, and resorting to cancel culture allows for an immediate end to bad behaviors through online public shaming. However, while cancel culture is often supported as a useful tool to end offensive or harmful behaviors, it also can be destructive when it comes to facilitating restorative approaches and creating a culture of transformative change. The rise of cancel culture can be (...) especially problematic among BIPOC communities faced with collective trauma rooted in horrific histories, punitive systems of punishment, and the social context of inequality. This chapter provides an overview of cancel culture, systemic and structural issues that have led to collective harm, and the impact of cancel culture on creating restorative and transformative change within BIPOC communities. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Cancel Culture and the Trope of the ScapegoatA Girardian Defense of the Importance of Contemplative ReadingJoakim Wrethed (bio)What unfolds in this article encompasses violence, language/reading, and ethics. René Girard addresses these topics primarily in terms of mimesis, its potential violence, and the trope of the scapegoat. Still, toward the end of his career and life, he relentlessly pointed out the dangers implicated in the dynamism of these (...) forces. He addressed it clearly in his "apocalyptic book" Battling to the End (2010):I have been accused of repeating myself too often, of turning my theory into a fetish, of using it to explain everything. Yet it has described mechanisms that recent discoveries in neuroscience confirm: imitation is the initial and essential means of learning; it is not something acquired later on. We can escape mimetism only by understanding the laws that govern it. Only by understanding the dangers of imitation can we conceive of authentic identification with the Other. However, we are becoming aware of the primacy of moral relationship at the very time when the atomization of humanity is being realized, and when violence has increased in intensity and unpredictability.1[End Page 15] It is this thin line between necessary/harmless imitation and its dangerous versions that will be the central theme in the analysis. As Girard states, a vast amount of established research confirms that the mimetic impulse is innate.2 We should pay specific attention to "the atomization of humanity," since it zooms in on our contemporary epoch's paradoxical "mass-individualism," evidently tremendously enhanced by information and communication technology (ICT). In order to contribute to Girard's lifework and to extend it beyond his own writing, we outline a few contemporary phenomena that clearly exhibit the primordial dangers of human violence that Girard draws attention to. These phenomena are initially only roughly sketched, but subsequent sections give them sharper relief. The central phenomena are cancel culture, speed, and the reading of literature. Just to be clear, the intended mode of reading should be construed in a broad sense, thus potentially including philosophy and theology, if one is inclined to emphasize the differences between these disciplines and the reading of literature.3Cancel culture in certain ways makes manifest a social welfare society version of escalating violence, indicating that "violence has increased in intensity and unpredictability."4 A succinct definition of cancel culture will initially suffice:Cancel culture refers to ending (or attempting to end) an individual's career or prominence to hold them accountable for immoral behavior. Driven primarily by young progressives, often through social media, cancel culture has attracted controversy since it swept into the national conversation.5This definition can easily be extended into larger historical patterns in which, for instance, colonial crimes are highlighted and demands are raised for contemporary acts of atonement. As Rob Henderson points out, the obvious flip side is that "the swift and decisive nature of cancel culture can stifle debate, and some believe that dialogue is a more productive way to foster change."6 The "swiftness" and the immediate collectable consequences are decisive in their functions as social punishment and exclusion; in other words, digitalized speed accomplishes verdict and punishment in a very short time span, which is a reflection of desire pure and simple. The rapidity from intention to anticipated effect rather resembles an instinctive and violent action more than the forwarding of a carefully thought through argument or statement. The present becomes an invincible ivory tower bristling with power to finally mete out the justice that the erroneous ethics of earlier times were incapable of conceiving and achieving. An always already accelerating modernity speeded up immensely through [End Page 16] the fast growth of information and communication technology (ICT). To be sure, the whole evolution of computer technology is defined primarily in terms of processing speed, together with the quantity of information that can be contained in as small a spatial entity as possible. The present-day reality of having almost everything only one or a few clicks away on a screen—as a modern day realization of the library in Alexandria—enhances the relevance of a phenomenon historians have referred to... (shrink)

What are the moral implications of cancel culture? If it is viewed as a means to achieve social justice, we might be more inclined to say that cancel culture is morally good. However, one could argue that cancel culture has too harsh consequences or involves immoral – even hateful – behaviour. We propose that cancel culture is used as an umbrella term for (at least) two different kinds of ‘cancelling’. Cancelling is often (...) seen in public debate as punishment. Following Radzik’s objections to social punishment we argue that this kind of cancelling is morally reprehensible. However, cancel culture as an umbrella term also includes other kinds of cancelling. Many also refer to cancel culture as a phenomenon when someone is being called out or held accountable for their supposedly problematic behaviour. Such cancelling does not need to be punishment, but is often rather an attempt to remove privileged access to the public sphere. In this way, cancelling is used as a tool for redistributing attention: it can (re)claim attention and recognition for marginalized perspectives, by a radical attempt to deny a privileged person access to the public sphere. We conclude that cancel culture as a whole cannot be seen as either morally good or bad, because ‘cancelling’ can be used as a tool for both punishment and redistribution. Each have their own moral implications: cancelling as punishment is reprehensible, but cancelling to redistribute attention might be less of a problem. (shrink)

S’appuyant sur Pour une morale de l’ambiguïté et « La Pensée de droite, aujourd’hui » de Simone de Beauvoir, cet article examine les antinomies éthiques et esthétiques de la cancel culture à travers la série Disclaimer (2024) d’Alfonso Cuarón. Il soutient que la cancel culture incarne une antinomie de l’action : les impératifs simultanés de rendre justice et de reconnaître l’ambiguïté inhérente à la liberté humaine. En pratique, cependant, la cancel culture reproduit également des (...) cycles de violence symbolique, réduisant la singularité des individus à des certitudes morales rigides. Cuarón met en scène cet échec à travers la forme mélodramatique de Disclaimer, sa manipulation du point de vue, du fantasme et de la spectature, qui transforme la cancel culture en spectacle : une mise en accusation réactionnaire qui confond justice et rétribution, voix et vacarme, tout en impliquant les spectateurs dans le désir de juger sans réflexion. En articulant la pensée de Beauvoir avec la notion de mauvaise foi structurelle de Lewis R. Gordon et la critique de l’échec formulée par Frantz Fanon, je propose que Disclaimer puisse fonctionner comme un outil existentiel : une œuvre d’art qui donne à ressentir les coûts éthiques d’une reconnaissance réciproque manquée. Ce faisant, je m’interroge sur ce que les antinomies de la cancel culture révèlent de la liberté et de l’action morale dans un monde polarisé et médiatisé. (shrink)

This paper puts forth two claims. First, cancel culture accusations of censorship are components of a practice that embodies a flawed ideology. Second, as components of a practice that embodies a flawed ideology, these accusations contribute to cultivating a hostile epistemic environment. I spell out the first claim with the help of Jason Stanley’s research on flawed ideology. I highlight how a characterization of cancellation that the conservative, right-leaning demographic find problematic in terms of amounting to a form (...) of censorship, preserves desirable outcomes for the privileged group. Drawing on the work of C. Thi Nguyen on hostile epistemology, I spell out the second claim by showing how these accusations exploit our epistemic trust mechanism such that they undermine the uptake of epistemic goods. If the flawed ideology constrains the intelligibility of our actions, then the concept of cancellation becomes problematic. I close by offering a suggestive approach inspired by work in non-ideal epistemology to counteract the flawed ideology. (shrink)

In a world undergoing rapid, large-scale technological change, the phenomenon of technosocial disruption is receiving increasing scholarly and societal attention. While the phenomenon is most actively delineated in philosophy of technology, it is also receiving growing attention within a different area of philosophy, namely the so-called “4E Cognition” approach to philosophy of mind. Despite this shared interest in technosocial disruption, there is relatively little exchange between the theorizing going on in these two different areas of philosophy. One of our paper's (...) two main aims is programmatic: to motivate the fruitfulness of such an exchange. We do this by turning to a specific case of technosocial disruption, namely Teenage Cancel Culture [TCC]. TCC cannot be disentangled from the introduction of social media platforms [SMPs] into modern day social life. Hence, we will speak of SMP-Afforded TCC. SPM-afforded TCC is a phenomenon fretted over by societal actors but strikingly ignored in academic research. In our effort to narrow this knowledge gap, we analyze SMP-afforded TCC from a perspective of technosocial disruption enriched by insights from 4E-Cognition. This brings out a specific worry about the role of SMPs in the social lives of teenagers. We argue that SMP-afforded TCC disrupts the social relational domains within which teenagers develop, maintain, and express their precarious social identities, by creating social affordances that are hostile to healthy risky interpersonal identity-exploration. As such, SMP-afforded TCC not only cancels particular individuals for particular acts; it may also pre-emptively cancel a certain way of being a social self, namely a healthy social risk-taker. We conclude the paper by proposing several potential routes for mitigating the perniciously disruptive effects of SMP-afforded TCC and identifying future areas for research. (shrink)

While philosophers have been studying the phenomenon of tolerance for quite a long time and fruitfully, cancel culture has aroused philosophical interest relatively recently. The article reveals the essential connection between the need to make exceptions to the tolerance guideline in order to achieve social justice and the appeal to the cancel culture as inherent in a modern democratic society, in which there are developed information and communication technologies and the corresponding power of influence of social (...) networks. The ethical and social positions of both those who support the cancel culture and those against whom it is directed are analyzed. The need for an involved study of the situation of oppressed social groups is specified in order to achieve an epistemological position sufficient for adequate ethical judgments regarding the parties to the conflict in the situation of cancellation. It is revealed that the partial success of identity politics is due to the fact that it begins to use the cancel culture to stigmatize opponents and apply the principle of toxicity to those who are not direct perpetrators of a gross violation of social justice. It is proven that the cancel culture can excessively exceed the limits of tolerance and in this case cause a counter-reaction with the demand to cancel those who abuse the cancel culture. It is argued that within the framework of its justified and adequate application, not only does cancel culture act as an effective tool for restoring social justice, it is also capable of generating socially beneficial collective ecstatic states and facilitating the creation of constructive, emotionally rich shared experiences. There is noted that the cancel culture as a joint proactive public position contributes to the development of civil society and needs its institutionalization for its further normalization. (shrink)

This article offers a philosophical analysis of cancel culture as a specific regime of public obviousness emerging within digital public space and characterized by a gradual loss of perspective, depth, and the capacity to see otherwise. The central thesis is that contemporary public violence increasingly ceases to appear as a discrete event endowed with procedure, responsibility, and symbolic finality, and instead operates as a regime: continuous, decentralized, and self-reproducing through repetition, archiving, and algorithmic amplification. Cancel culture (...) is examined not as an isolated moral practice or a mere form of social sanction, but as a symptom of a deeper transformation of publicness itself – a shift from dialogue and argumentation toward a rhetoric of obviousness in which complexity is perceived as a threat and alternative perspectives as a defect of vision. The article introduces the concept of cyclical vision to describe a mode of perception in which repetition replaces understanding, the circle supplants the route, and obviousness takes the place of truth. Within this regime, exclusion is enacted without formal decision or explicit verdict and arises as a side effect of collective consent to “non-intervention”. Methodologically, the study combines discursive, phenomenological, and conceptual analysis with a structural reading of mythological figures. Homer’s Cyclops (Polyphemus) is interpreted not as an emblem of archaic brutality but as a model of single-perspective vision that admits neither doubt, dialogue, nor return. Opposed to this figure is the politropic navigation embodied by Odysseus – a rhetorical logic of displacement, delay, and refusal of definitive identification (“Nobody”), which preserves meaning and subjectivity in an environment where language functions as an instrument of capture. The article argues that cancel culture not only produces victims but progressively sacrifices the very possibility of perspective, imagination, and closure. In relinquishing finitude, it transforms violence into a background condition rather than an event. Philosophical analysis of cyclical vision thus emerges as a form of critical resistance aimed at restoring essential distinctions – between obviousness and truth, repetition and understanding, the closed circle and the open route – without which public space loses its capacity to function as a site of shared thinking. (shrink)

Cancel culture has been linked, in recent times in Western democracies, to the suppression of freedom of expression in both academic and non-academic settings. I offer critical realism as a resource to trace its conditions of possibility, focusing on the former. After the necessity of academic freedom to facilitate critical realist inquiry is noted, the emergent features of cancel culture are described and accounted for. I discuss the historical continuities in punishing freedom of expression and their (...) authoritarian, religious and political versions of power. Identity politics and their attendant cancel culture keep up this tradition, but some new features, especially related to changes in technology and neoliberal individualism, have enabled recent forms of silencing and punishment. (shrink)

Le mouvement de réappropriation des espaces physiques et virtuels de parole pour dénoncer les injustices et ceux qui les commettent a pris des formes multiples : de l’occupation de places publiques à la libération de la parole contre les violences systémiques, sexistes et racistes en particulier, via des mouvements comme #MeToo et #OnVeutRespirer. Les féminismes contemporains s’inscrivent ainsi dans un contexte de mobilisation caractérisé par la défiance vis-à-vis d’une démocratie représentative perçue comme confisquée par les élites et par un horizon (...) de « convergence des luttes » ne recomposant pas l’hégémonie d’un critère ou d’une idéologie. Comment, au sein de la société française contemporaine, l’entrecroisement des urgences écologique, sociale et sanitaire questionne-t-il le rapport à l’engagement, en particulier féministe? Cette interrogation est appréhendée à partir d’une enquête qualitative, menée de juillet 2019 à août 2020, auprès de plus de 120 responsables associatifs féministes, anti-racistes, écologistes, antispécistes, pour la justice sociale et/ou de lutte contre la pauvreté, mais aussi d’activistes avec des affiliations plurielles et fluides. Après avoir abordé la manière dont la question du « faire commun » se pose à l’ère de la Covid-19 et des controverses autour de la « cancel culture », nous examinerons comment les féminismes contemporains sont mis à l’épreuve par l’horizon d’une émancipation partagée dans une interdépendance apaisée. (shrink)

How religious persecution and censorship shaped the context of philosophy in Catholic Europe in the sixteenth century.

This article argues that Slavoj Žižek’s provocative speech at the Frankfurt Book Fair was a political event of the first order. Described as a major scandal triggered by Žižek’s remarks on the Israel-Hamas war, the speech was much more than a deliberate provocation. It provides a window into a world that had become unhinged long before the conflict erupted anew. It offers an opportunity to observe the complex relationship between individuals, institutions, and society. It continues to be a cautionary tale (...) that illustrates the thin line between courage and hypocrisy; and how difficult it is to practise diversity in a world gripped by the dangerous logic of evil. Thus, Žižek’s opening address transcends its immediate context because it brings us up against one of today’s defining questions: what does it mean, and what does it take, to practise diversity when facing the most divisive topics of our time? (shrink)

In the past couple of years, much has been said and written in the media about the notion of 'cancel culture' and the way in which various celebrities, journalists, politicians, ideas, and monuments have been cancelled. Yet, the conversations taking place on this issue have been largely uninformed, lacking intellectual rigor, and devoid of the historical and cultural context that could help make the contested debates more enlightening. The author investigates the phenomenon of cancelling historically as well as (...) how it became an issue recently. The book presents some compelling philosophical arguments against the practice of cancelling and highlights various educational dangers and risks that emerge from this practice and deserve our attention. (shrink)

In diesem Kapitel werden keine Beobachtungssprachen verhandelt. Es geht um widerborstige Sprachtraditionen, um das Gendern, um Sinti und Roma, um „Mohren“ und um Indianer. Ausschlussverfahren, das Canceln, das kein US-amerikanischer „Exportartikel“ ist, und die Diskurskontrollen im Wissenschaftsbetrieb spielen ebenfalls eine Rolle. Schließlich kommen Vertreterinnen und Vertreter der Postcolonial Studies, der Critical Race Studies oder der Whiteness Studies zu Wort, die übrigens Immanuel Kant als einen theoretischen Vordenker der imperialen Eroberung, des Kolonialismus und des Rassismus betrachten. Sicher, die Aufarbeitung der kolonialen (...) Verbrechen des „Westens“ ist dringend notwendig, die intellektuellen Vordenker müssen benannt und der alte und neue Rassismus bekämpft werden. Die Geschichte der Judenfeindlichkeit beginnt indes früher als die der Kolonialverbrechen. Und der Holocaust war mehr als eine schreckliche Ausuferung des Kolonialismus, wie von den Kritikerinnen des Kolonialismus behauptet. (shrink)

This article investigates how German universities function as collective “discursive spaces” for academic freedom amid debates often framed as “cancel culture.” Drawing on a representative survey of 9,083 full-time academics across 158 institutions in mid-2024, we employed vignettes on four controversial issues – gender-sensitive language in exams, civil clauses in military research, the Middle East conflict, and explanations for crime rates of immigrant groups – to assess expectations for institutional responses. Descriptive analyses reveal that, rather than favoring passive (...) or coercive stances, a broad majority of respondents across disciplines, status groups, and genders endorse universities to facilitate a discursive space for controversial issues. However, when state authorities threaten autonomy by mandating or banning military research clauses, respondents exhibit lower confidence in campus deliberation and greater support for legal action. The analyses also reveal that political orientation shapes preferred modes of engagement: left-leaning academics more readily back their universities to mobilize deliberative measures (e.g., committees, public forums), while right-leaning academics are comparatively less inclined to mobilize such avenues. The findings challenge individualistic conceptions of academic free speech, highlighting its collective negotiation within the administrative frameworks of the university. By shedding light on both enabling and constraining institutional dynamics, the study contributes a nuanced empirical perspective to debates on academic citizenship, institutional resilience, and the conditions under which universities cultivate or curtail academic freedom. (shrink)

Conservatives often argue that so-called ‘cancel culture’ suppresses free speech and unfairly targets right-wing views, particularly on university campuses. However, others view the right to boycott as an important form of protest that can hold the powerful to account. This chapter considers some high-profile cases of cancel culture that concern psychological issues, such as claims regarding gender identity and human hierarchies. Cases like those of academics Kathleen Stock and James Watson are frequently cited as evidence of (...) an unreasoned liberal bias in universities, though the controversies they provoke are often more complex than mere political disagreement. (shrink)

This chapter does not address languages of observation. It deals with recalcitrant linguistic traditions, gender-inclusive language, Sinti and Roma, “Moors,” and Native Americans. Exclusionary practices, canceling—which is not a US-American “export product”—and discourse controls within academia also play a role. Finally, representatives of Postcolonial Studies, Critical Race Studies, and Whiteness Studies have their say, who, incidentally, regard Immanuel Kant as a theoretical pioneer of imperial conquest, colonialism, and racism. Certainly, coming to terms with the colonial crimes of the “West” is (...) urgently necessary, the intellectual pioneers must be named, and both old and new forms of racism must be fought. However, the history of anti-Jewish hostility begins earlier than that of colonial crimes. And the Holocaust was more than a horrific excess of colonialism, as critics of colonialism claim. (shrink)

This book argues that whenever we are talking about cancel culture, identity politics, political correctness, antisemitism, conspiracy theories, or the alt-Right, we are dealing with a culture war, which often pits two sides against each other in a split world of good and evil. These political representations rely on a set of unconscious processes best understand through psychoanalysis. As this book argues, if you want to comprehend the rhetoric of the Right, the Left, conservatives, and centrists, it (...) is necessary to see how these ideologies rely on unacknowledged defense mechanisms, fantasies, fears, and desires. In fact, if we do not employ psychoanalytic concepts to examine our political investments, we will be unable to get to the root causes driving these social productions. Each chapter of this book looks at a specific writer‘s or politician’s take on contemporary culture wars. One of the reoccurring themes concerns the way free speech has been weaponized by different ideological formations, and this battle over free expression is often centered on the role that universities play in balancing the demands among competing social interests. This book will not only clarify what universities should be, but it will also help us to move beyond our polarized political world. (shrink)

This introduction outlines the main argument of the book and summarizes the focus of each chapter. In analyzing the works of politicians, professors, and pundits, I show how the interpreters of culture wars often produce and replicate the irrational social dynamics they are seeking to critique. Thus, the centrist critics bemoaning the polarizing of our political and social lives utilize a polarizing rhetoric just as the Right-wing politicians attacking the Left’s political correctness deny and project their own form of (...) cancel culture. Moreover, as others have remarked, culture wars are often themselves a mode of displacement and substitution bent on replacing concerns for class conflict and economic exploitation with a focus on competing cultural norms and identities. However, instead of simply dismissing the importance of class or culture, I seek to show how it is necessary to think both at the same time without giving priority to one force. Thus, concerns over racism, sexism, and homophobia need to be attached to the way prejudices and stereotypes serve to enable and maintain economic forms of exploitation and privilege. (shrink)

This essay explores with the help of the discipline of philosophy of education the educational implications of the practice of canceling individuals or ideas. In particular, it investigates what gets lost or undermined when we cancel various opinions, words, and practices. To advance my argument, I first introduce some basic definitions while analyzing the problem with the notion of cancel culture. Then, I briefly review various historical examples of canceling going back to Socrates. The next part of (...) this paper presents some of the philosophical arguments against canceling and restricting speech made by John Stuart Mill. After presenting Mill’s contentions in favor of liberty of expression, I revisit John Dewey’s conception of democratic association in order to show that the practice of canceling people and ideas is antithetical to Dewey’s dynamic view of democracy. Based on the insights of Mill and Dewey, in the final part I attempt to make an educational case against the practice of canceling. (shrink)

The article is devoted to the decolonization of Ukrainian culture as an important factor of nation-building in the European perspective. At the same time, decolonization is a current trend in Western academic thought, which is embodied in social activism, in particular, in the wok movement and the culture of abolition. Postcolonial studies has become an intellectual battleground. These studies draw a new front line in the culture wars. Rethinking Western culture in light of its imperial expansionist (...) past defines the goal of decolonization. However, the tendency towards the politicization of vouk and the culture of cancellation. carries the risks of undermining the basic values of Western culture - freedom of thought and the rule of law, while the decolonization of Ukrainian culture has a different purpose. Unlike cultural decolonization in Western countries, cultural decolonization in Ukraine is aimed at legitimizing modern European values (Lisbon Agreement, 2007) by overcoming the «Russian-oriented» (Eurasian) tradition of thinking.Identifying the authentic contents of Ukrainian culture and refuting its imperial-Soviet interpretations is one of the main tasks of the decolonization of Ukrainian culture. The article offers a comparative analysis of Ukrainian and Western versions of cultural decolonization in order to avoid uncritical borrowings and ignoring the peculiarities of the Ukrainian context. The successful decolonization of Ukrainian culture requires the development of its 1) concept, 2) methods of theoretical substantiation, and 3) methods of practical implementation. The article states that the decolonization of Ukrainian culture becomes possible if its research strategies are deprived of colonial influences, which reveal indications of the imperial and Soviet scientific paradigm of social and humanitarian knowledge. The key concepts of the research are referring to the works of Nigel Giggar (2023), Douglas Murray (2022), Linda Martín Alcoff (2023), Jonh Darwin (2009), Kwasi Kwarteng (2013), Yaroslav Hrytsak (2022), Serhii Plokhii (2021, 2023), Timothy D. Snyder (2017, 2918) and others. (shrink)

The subject of the study is the semantic content of cultural diplomacy. The relevance of addressing this topic is determined by the specifics of the current stage of development of international relations, when cultural diplomacy finds itself in a situation of sharply narrowed opportunities amid the intensification of counterproductive strategies of “cancel culture.” The purpose of the work is to trace the features of the disclosure of values and meanings of the period of recent sociocultural turbulence. The objectives (...) of the study are 1) to clarify the nature of the attitude of representatives of creative professions to the political and ideological realities of the time; 2) highlight the difference between the dichotomies “political / non-political” and “official / unofficial”; 3) establish the significance of each part of these dichotomies in solving the problems of cultural diplomacy; 4) to trace theoretical and practical approaches to the components of these dichotomies on the part of representatives of artistic culture in the light of the paradigm of meaning-making as a key value of culture; 5) determine the possibilities and boundaries of interaction between representatives of creative professions and the political context of their activities. The research methodology is based on an integrated approach based on data from cultural history, cultural anthropology, and political psychology within the framework of the theory of intercultural communication. The key method used is categorical analysis, as well as discourse analysis, which allows us to trace blocks of value preferences, taking into account the characteristics of current historical and cultural processes. The novelty of the study lies in identifying the possibilities and boundaries for the development of cultural contacts in an era of current turbulence (primarily political), when, against the backdrop of the intensification of “cancel culture,” the possibilities for such interactions are reduced. (shrink)

In recent years, there has been a great deal of public debate about cancelling and cancel culture. So far though, this phenomenon has received little attention from moral philosophers. This paper addresses issue by investigating the nature of cancelling and the conditions under which it is appropriate. We begin by examining the origins of the term before investigating Linda Radzik’s account of cancelling as a form of social punishment which is morally appropriate only if the person being punished (...) deserves it and harming them will lead to better consequences than alternative courses of action. We argue that cancelling refers to a wider range of phenomena than Radzik acknowledges. It may also be a form of reputation correction, the ending of a parasocial relationship, or a way of holding informal representatives to account. As we argue, these different kinds of moral practice call for different kinds of ethical justification. (shrink)

At several points in On Liberty, Mill suggests that social sanctions on speech are deeply concerning, perhaps even more concerning than legal sanctions on speech. This is odd. Clearly, legal sanctions on speech pose a greater threat to freedom of speech than social sanctions, which are not enforced with the power of the state. Although I will not defend Mill’s claim that social sanctions are more concerning than legal sanctions, I will argue that we have not paid sufficient attention to (...) the way that informal rules and social structures impose immense pressure on the speech of individuals. Recently, there has been extensive societal wrestling concerning social pressures and sanctions on individual speech. This paper explores this, specifically the phenomenon that has become known as “cancel culture,” although the phenomenon far predates this term. In this paper, I offer a definition of cancel culture and contrast it with a culture of criticism. I then proceed to analyze why cancellation is often morally problematic and not conducive to liberal society. Along the way, I address common objections. (shrink)

American culture is changing, a sentiment echoed in phrases such as “the new normal,” and “in these uncertain times,” that regularly introduce all forms of public discourse now, signally a national sense of vulnerability and transformation. Cultural shifts generally involve multiple catalysts, but in this collection the contributors focus on the role changing discourse norms play in cancel culture, corporatism, the counter-sexual revolution, racialism, and a radically divided political climate. Three central themes arise in the arguments. First, (...) that contemporary discourse norms emphasize outcomes rather than shared understanding, which support institutional and political goals but contribute to the contemporary political divide, and the notion that we are engaged in a zero-sum game. These discourse norms give rise to a form of Adorno’s administered world, such that we order society according to dominant opinions, which generally means those well acclimated to institutional and corporate culture. Finally, as Arendt feared, the personal has become political, meaning that the toxic public discourse invades private discourse, reducing personal autonomy and leaving us perpetually under the scrutiny of institutional authority. (shrink)

This paper advances a Marxist critique of the politics of cancellation and raises concerns about the possible development of a cancel culture. Rather than delving into debates on freedom of speech, crucial though they are, this paper focuses on the pragmatics of the political tool – its goals, mechanisms, effects, and the underlying reasoning. From a Marxist perspective, it is essential to analyse cancellation and cancel culture holistically, considering their rationale, the mechanism, the objectives, and the (...) impacts, along with their relationship to the material conditions of society. Such an analysis provides a comprehensive understanding of any historical development and argues that addressing political problems in the long term requires such a holistic approach, including the development of relevant productive forces. If cancellation evolves into a culture, it may give rise to a polity that reinforces market relations. Within the framework of historical materialism, this would be a case of the superstructure supporting the base, turning politics into a matter of private opinions, which is far from ideal. The paper concludes with some practical considerations. (shrink)

_This article situates Anthony Burgess’s_ A Clockwork Orange _(1962) in the context of the decline of British hegemony following the Second World War and the rise of what would eventually be known as capitalist realism. Burgess’s novel of a youth culture being controlled by an authoritarian state confirms the hypotheses of Fredric Jameson on post-modernism and Mark Fisher on canceled futures, namely that alternatives to the dominant social order have now been reincorporated into the logic of late capitalism. The (...) dystopian novel’s pastiche of different languages found in the characters’ futuristic lingo is evidence of a cultural exhaustion that characterizes our inability to make sense of linear time in the era of neoliberalism. Moreover, the novel’s alternative version as it appeared in the United States signaled the rise of American dominance on the world stage._ A Clockwork Orange _demonstrates the way Britain attempted to maintain its authority in global politics by clinging to its past, which shows that a key aspect of imagining the future lies in abandoning the hopeless nostalgia that is easily co-opted by nationalist supremacy_. (shrink)

The article considers the place and role of discourse in human life. The basis for this is the im- portance of language and speech as one of the leading features of humanity. Thanks to language, a person’s own reality is formed, which has a semantic character. Four dimensions of the effect of speech in the constitution of the human world are identified. These are: the function of se- mantic productivity and reliability of speech; function of organization and accumulation of ex- (...) perience; the function of normativity of human life; personalization function. The acquisition of the discourse format by speech is associated with the assertion of significance and substantiation of the validity of judgments. These qualities of discursive practices are inseparable from their normative effect. If speech as such is dominated by the effect of communication and statements, the discourse is primarily a semantic ordering of reality. It always creates, transforms or cancels a certain semantic order. The thesis on the growing role of discursive practices in the contempo- rary world is substantiated. This is due to the epoch-making changes in human life, namely the end of the era of production. The whole history of human civilization can be represented as the development of production (from the invention of the production mode of economy in the form of the Neolithic revolution). The end of the era of production means at the same time the actu- alization of the great historical task of man’s appeal to himself, to his own nature and organic ability to live. Taking care of yourself, not the conditions of existence (external goods) will be a priority for human development in the near historical perspective. However, this reorientation of human existence is confronted with the contradictory impact of virtualization of reality for man, which entails changes in the classical vocation of discourse. In this regard, the effect of discourses in the highly powerful information environment of today is analyzed, which is becoming the leading force of global reality in the form of information power. (shrink)

Despite the general acceptance of, for instance, Latin Europe’s intellectual debts to Arabic scholarship, claims of ‘cultural obstacles’ to knowledge transmission across different civilizations continue to be made by Eurocentric scholars. A non-essentialist understanding of scholarly tradition enables, inter alia, a clear understanding of, on the one hand, the general non-culture-specific nature of scholarly tradition, and, on the other, why there could sometimes occur, for non-cultural reasons, obstacles to knowledge transmission across different cultures. Based on this understanding, Eurocentric claims (...) concerning ‘cultural obstacles’ are critiqued with reference to the reception of Euclid’s Elements in China over the centuries, and to the introduction of the Tycho Brahe model and the telescope to China in the late 16th to early 17th centuries. Toby Huff has advanced a neo-Eurocentric ‘intellectual curiosity’ argument with reference to the telescope episode, which is shown to be self-cancelling and simple-minded. (shrink)

Cultural pluralism in the Balkans has often been considered as the source of conflict in the region. Against this perspective it is suggested that Enlightenment political thought in southeastern Europe, as represented by the radical republicanism of Rhigas Velestinlis , incorporated the idea of cultural pluralism in a project for a unitary democratic state, modelled on the 'Republic of Virtue', that was expected to replace despotism and to transform its subjects into free citizens. The political culture of this state (...) would be provided by the principles of republican Hellenism while its ethnic pluralism would be located in its civil society. It is stressed that republican Hellenism was a political and moral, not an ethnic, project. This political project however, was preempted by the emergence of cultural nationalism that cancelled the Enlightenment vision of democratic citizenship, equality and recognition for individuals as well as ethnic groups in a unitary republic. (shrink)

Taking its cue from Vladimir Putin’s use of Dostoevsky to support his critical view of Western culture, the article challenges the view that Dostoevsky can be straightforwardly corralled into the Russian President’s nationalistic and imperialistic agenda. Instead, it follows the approach taken by George Lukacs in response to National Socialism’s self-representation as the authentic inheritor of the German cultural tradition, namely, to show that any great cultural work is going to be resistant to the kind of one-dimensional interpretations typical (...) of authoritarian regimes. Particularly, the article focusses on much-debated passages of Dostoevsky’s The Possessed (aka Demons) to show that the writer has a more nuanced view and that his work contains resources to resist today’s ultra-nationalism. (shrink)

The reception of Avicenna by medieval Jewish readers presents an underappreciated enigma. Despite the philosophical and scientific stature of Avicenna, his philosophical writings were relatively little studied in Jewish milieus, be it in Arabic or in Hebrew. In particular, Avicenna's philosophical writings are not among the “Hebräische Übersetzungen des Mittelalters” – only very few of them were translated into Hebrew. As an author associated with a definite corpus of writings, Avicenna hardly existed in Jewish philosophy in Hebrew. Paradoxically, however, some (...) of Avicenna's most distinctive ideas were widely known and embraced by Jewish philosophers. This is the phenomenon that we dub Avicennian knowledge without Avicenna. In contrast with the philosophical treatises, Avicenna's medical writings were widely and intensively studied by Jews, especially in Hebrew, and remained influential until at least the seventeenth century. The present article presents a comprehensive picture of Avicenna's reception within medieval Jewish cultures in both Arabic and Hebrew and tries to explain the Jews’ complex attitude to Avicenna.La réception d'Avicenne par les érudits juifs médiévaux présente une énigme dont on n'a pas encore pris toute la mesure. Malgré la grande stature scientifique et philosophique d'Avicenne, ses écrits philosophiques ont été peu connus des savants juifs, que ce soit en arabe ou en hébreu. Ils n'ont guère fait partie des “Hebräische Übersetzungen des Mittelalters” – peu seulement ont été traduits en hébreu. En tant qu’auteur associé à un corpus de textes, Avicenne n'existe presque pas dans la philosophie juive en hébreu. Paradoxalement cependant, certaines des idées les plus caractéristiques d'Avicenne étaient bien connues et acceptées par des philosophes juifs. Nous appelons ce phénomène savoir avicennien sans Avicenne. Contrairement aux écrits philosophiques, les ouvrages médicaux d'Avicenne, eux, étaient lus et utilisés par les juifs, notamment en traductions hébraïques, et ce jusqu'au xviie siècle. Cet article présente un tableau général de la réception d'Avicenne, en arabe et en hébreu, dans les différentes cultures juives et il tente d'expliquer l'attitude complexe des savants juifs vis-à-vis d'Avicenne.Send article to KindleTo send this article to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about sending to your Kindle. Find out more about sending to your Kindle. Note you can select to send to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be sent to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply. Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.AVICENNA AMONG MEDIEVAL JEWS THE RECEPTION OF AVICENNA'S PHILOSOPHICAL, SCIENTIFIC AND MEDICAL WRITINGS IN JEWISH CULTURES, EAST AND WESTVolume 22, Issue 2Gad Freudenthal and Mauro Zonta DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0957423912000033Your Kindle email address Please provide your Kindle [email protected]@kindle.com Available formats PDF Please select a format to send. By using this service, you agree that you will only keep articles for personal use, and will not openly distribute them via Dropbox, Google Drive or other file sharing services. Please confirm that you accept the terms of use. 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Cancel Send ×Send article to Google Drive To send this article to your Google Drive account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about sending content to Google Drive. AVICENNA AMONG MEDIEVAL JEWS THE RECEPTION OF AVICENNA'S PHILOSOPHICAL, SCIENTIFIC AND MEDICAL WRITINGS IN JEWISH CULTURES, EAST AND WESTVolume 22, Issue 2Gad Freudenthal and Mauro Zonta DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0957423912000033Available formats PDF Please select a format to send. By using this service, you agree that you will only keep articles for personal use, and will not openly distribute them via Dropbox, Google Drive or other file sharing services. Please confirm that you accept the terms of use. Cancel Send ×Export citation Request permission. (shrink)

This article offers a philosophical analysis of the loss of navigation as a specific regime of contemporary public violence, in which exclusion occurs not through open conflict or rupture, but within a zone of illusory proximity to a goal, consensus, or completion. Publicity increasingly functions not as a route – structured by distances, corrections, and the possibility of return – but as acceleration, where the path appears almost completed, the outcome guaranteed, and the need for orientation rendered excessive. In this (...) regime, language loses its navigational function and becomes a signal of momentum: it compresses the distance between perception and decision, movement and halt, trust and the abdication of responsibility. Violence no longer appears as an event nor requires recognition; it emerges as a side effect of inertia, premature certainty, and the voluntary delegation of navigational freedom. Cancel culture is examined as one symptom of this broader disorientation. Exclusion here is enacted not through argumentation or moral judgment, but through the declaration of deliberation itself as redundant. Responsibility is dispersed across procedures, collective reactions, and algorithmic amplification; navigational freedom is handed over “for safekeeping”, not under coercion, but within a horizon of apparent clarity and safety. In this zone, public violence arises not despite the feeling of proximity, but precisely because of it: stopping is perceived as disruption, and return as increasingly unlikely. The theoretical framework brings together analyses of symbolic violence and linguistic power, performativity and discursive normalization, the sacrificial mechanism, critiques of acceleration and the loss of horizon, algorithmic publicity, and practices of space and movement. Within this framework, the article traces a transformation of public experience through three mythological figures: delegated freedom (Aeolus, where the “right” wind allows the map to be set aside), instantaneous absorption (the Laestrygonians, where a safe harbor collapses into a trap without interval), and the voluntary abandonment of return (Circe, where transformation appears as comfortable normalization and logos is replaced by function). The central analytical concept is the zone of being “too close to return” – a space in which proximity to the goal dulls vigilance and inertial movement becomes more dangerous than the storm itself. Odysseus’s polytropic capacity is opposed to this logic as the ability not to mistake the first island for Ithaca and to preserve the possibility of turning where safety seems self-evident. The conclusion argues that a philosophical analysis of lost navigation functions as a form of critical resistance, restoring distinctions between movement and acceleration, proximity and return, trust and the abdication of responsibility. (shrink)

Christian ethics has from the beginning been concerned with moral agency and culture, and Christian social ethics has acknowledged the power of social structures for the last 150 years. But ethics has yet to employ extensively the resources of that discipline that specializes in understanding structure and culture: sociology. Out of a concern to defend human freedom, Catholic social teaching has employed an individualistic approach that misdescribes the characteristics of social evil as little more than the sum of (...) individual choices and proposes individual conversion as a remedy. This book presents a refined sociological understanding of social structures and culture: critical realist sociology. It briefly describes the roots of critical realism in the natural sciences, its understanding of social structure and culture, and how structure and culture have causal impact on human decisions - through freedom, not cancelling it. It makes clear how, in most cases, people "go along" with the restrictions and opportunities offered them but, when there is sufficient frustration with these, how decisions can transform both structure and culture. The analysis is then applied in more detail to provide needed illumination in three areas: the ecological crisis, economic life, and virtue ethics. The core claims of the volume, offering an explanatory account of moral-agency-amidst-structure-and-culture for use in social ethics, would be of great interest to all those working in the field, both Catholic and Protestant. (shrink)

This study examines the impoliteness strategies employed by Kuwaiti passengers who complain about airline delays and cancellations online on TripAdvisor and X. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, the study analyzes 50 samples to calculate the frequency of various impoliteness strategies. The study adopts Brown and Levinson (1987. Politeness: Some universals in language usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) and Culpeper (2011. Impoliteness: Using language to cause offence. Cambridge University Press) frameworks to identify the most commonly employed strategies and understand the (...) influence of Kuwaiti cultural norms on these choices. The findings show that Negative impoliteness (50.80 %) and Positive impoliteness (31.74 %) are the most prevalent strategies, indicating a preference for direct and explicit expressions of dissatisfaction. Less frequent strategies, such as Sarcasm, Mock Politeness (3.18 %), and Withholding Politeness (1.58 %), suggest that while indirect methods are occasionally used, they are less favored in this context. The research highlights the implicit use of indirect strategies to preserve social harmony while also emphasizing Kuwaiti communication’s cultural focus on assertiveness and accountability. This study gives an explanation for investigating online complaints in the context of Kuwaiti cultural norms and enhances awareness of the cultural impacts on impoliteness strategies. The study suggests that future research might explore the role of demographic factors to examine the evolution of impoliteness strategies in online complaints. (shrink)

The postmodern critique of modernity has focused on the construction of the modern subject and the self‐disciplining and self‐cancellation tendencies within it. This critique, however, fails to consider what happens during the early years of children’s development — the period during which the modern subject is made, and the one in which the paradoxes and ambiguities inherent in modern subjectivity are established. In this essay Guoping Zhao analyzes how children’s developmental process affects the definition and formation of the self in (...) the United States. She uses a cross‐cultural lens, comparing the dominant cultural ideas and practices associated with child development in the United States with those influenced and supported by Confucianism. Zhao argues that children’s paths of development are not natural but cultural ones guided by underlying ideologies, and ultimately concludes that this cultural process determines the shapes and forms of the modern subject and the nature of individual freedom and autonomy. (shrink)

Zygmunt Bauman said of 1968 that he could not empathize with the enthusiasm of the Western Left, that this was some kind of party. In Eastern Europe 1968 stood for an end, not a hope. Soon Bauman would be forced into exile, opening a new and brilliant phase of his intellectual trajectory. Sketches in the Theory of Culture was his last Polish book. It was suppressed in 1968, the contract cancelled in retaliation against his support for reforming politics. Now (...) it has been rediscovered, originally in galley proofs, and translated by Dariusz Brzezinski for Polity Press. Like much of Bauman’s work, it is sprawling and inclusive, taking in anthropology, sociology of culture, ethnology and semiotics. It anticipates his life-long enthusiasm for Lévi-Strauss; and it also foreshadows some of the themes much later to be identified as liquid modern, though it may be the case that the theme of continuity is rather social turbulence from postwar reconstruction to the travails of socialist Poland. In this paper I review some of its themes and its status in the body of his work, and offer some introductory remarks on its importance to the study of culture. (shrink)