Bearing Witness: The Duty of Non‐indifference and the Case for Reading the News

Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 104 (2):368-391 (2023)
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Abstract

Ignorance of current events is ordinarily treated as a moral failing. In this article, I argue that much of this ire is misplaced. The disengaged are no less positioned to do good or dispense beneficence, no more arrogant or complicit than those glued to the headlines. Nonetheless, I contend that citizens do have moral reason to remain informed – they ought not be indifferent to others. This, I show, provides a standing reason to pay attention to distant strangers: by bearing witness, we avoid indifference. It follows that we should reconsider our media diet and our critiques of the disengaged.

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Brookes Brown
Clemson University

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References found in this work

The Problem of Global Justice.Thomas Nagel - 2005 - Philosophy and Public Affairs 33 (2):113-147.
Love as a moral emotion.J. David Velleman - 1999 - Ethics 109 (2):338-374.
Responsibility and global justice: A social connection model.Iris Marion Young - 2006 - Social Philosophy and Policy 23 (1):102-130.
The practice of moral judgment.Barbara Herman - 1985 - Journal of Philosophy 82 (8):414-436.

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