False Consciousness and Fragile Agency

Abstract

Abstract This chapter explores the blameworthiness of everyday compliance with oppressive norms. Any account of the appropriate response should meet two desiderata: first, it should make sense of the difference in position, and corresponding difference in appropriate response, of those in the oppressed groups and those in the oppressor groups (the asymmetry intuition), and second, it should not ignore or undermine the agency of the oppressed person (it should navigate the “agency dilemma”). The chapter argues that neither traditional stinging response, such as blame or shame, nor traditional therapeutic responses such as those a clinician may take, are apt in the case of wrongdoing that is due to false consciousness. False consciousness does damage agency, but it does not undermine it completely. The chapter proposes a solidarity-based response, which is primarily appropriate between those who are in the same group. This makes sense of the relevance of different social positions without denying that those in the oppressed group are also in the grip of false consciousness. It avoids the problem of being patronizing because it is limited to those who are in the same situation, and so does not have a hierarchical structure.