The Ethics of Complicity
This event uses practical philosophy to achieve better understanding of The Ethics of Complicity.
Description of event from UCD organiser: This on-line lecture and discussion examines the problem of complicity. At the simplest level, the problem is about my individual responsibility for assisting or encouraging another person to do something immoral or illegal. At the more complex level, the problem is about my responsibility as a member of a group (e.g. an employee in a company) that collectively performs something immoral or illegal. You will receive some general reading in advance of the course.
Normally I am morally responsible only for those actions that I freely and knowingly choose to perform – and I am not responsible for anybody else’s actions. One exception to this is complicity. If I own a crowbar and lend it to my friend, there is nothing wrong with such lending – until my friend uses it to burgle a house, thereby possibly retrospectively making me legally and morally complicit. What are the conditions for such complicity? What is the difference between my assisting a crime and my encouraging a crime? How much do I have to causally contribute to the substantive crime in order to be complicit? What sorts of knowledge and attitudes do I have to have toward the crime in order for my assistance or encouragement to make me an accomplice?
Once we have discussed the one-on-one scenario, we will move on to the more complicated context of group and corporate responsibility: the group in question might be a family, a company, a nation, a religion. How far am I morally 'tainted' by my employer's immoral or illegal activity, especially when I made no causal contribution to it? What are the limits of my loyalty to groups with which I identity? Once I learn of the immoral or illegal activity, how much of a moral duty do I have to challenge my employer from within, to resign, or to blow the whistle?
Click here to make a reservation. A zoom link will be emailed to you once you have registered and paid.
General Admission: €70.00
General Admission (student/retired/unemployed): €25.00
Refunds up to 7 days before event.
If you have any queries please contact Fiona Lavin at ethics.cpd@ucd.ie