Canadian Journal of Philosophy· 2026Q1
Resistance and Racism: On Moral Psychology and Moral Incentive in Nonideal Circumstances
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- Q1SCImago
- 2026year
Short summary
This article argues that the oppressed may participate in unjust systems due to a misguided sense of self-respect that leads them to disregard the claims of fellow oppressed individuals, drawing on W. E. B. Du Bois's concept of double consciousness.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- A Kantian framework can illuminate Charles Mills's account of white complicity in racialized moral psychology.
- The incentive structure for the oppressed to participate in oppressive systems is less explored in philosophy.
- The oppressed may engage in injustice due to a misguided self-respect that leads to ignoring the claims of others in their group.
- This distorted self-respect serves as the normative basis for W. E. B. Du Bois's critique of the black middle class's lack of political solidarity.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Abstract A Kantian reconstruction of racialized moral psychology can illuminate the late Charles Mills’s account of white complicity. Unfortunately, philosophers have comparatively less to say about the incentive structure of the oppressed to participate in the systems that oppress them. Drawing on W. E. B. Du Bois’s notion of double consciousness, this article argues that the oppressed might participate in injustice out of a misguided sense of self-respect that rationalizes their disregard of the unmet claims of fellow oppressed people. Self-respect gone too far is, in effect, the normative basis of Du Bois’s critique of the black middle class’s failure to forge intragroup black political solidarity.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 2026 · DOI ↗
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Field: Philosophy
PhilosophyArts and Humanities