Keywords
epistemic power
celebrities
public shaming
deplatforming
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Abstract
Public discourse and academic debate on the permissibility of social punishment range from strong endorsement to categorical rejection. This paper defends a moderate view: social punishment practices such as shaming, canceling, or deplatforming may be legitimate, but only under certain conditions. It focuses on one key criterion: the social status of the wrongdoer and asks whether celebrities and non-celebrities should be treated differently. I argue that the epistemic power of celebrities justifies greater exposure to social punishment, whereas non-celebrities should generally be subject only to private punishment. The paper outlines the normative implications of this distinction. Due to the subject of this paper and given that it is a work in political philosophy, the method used here is reflective equilibrium.
Funding
The research for this paper has been supported by the National Science Centre, Poland (“Shaming, Canceling, No-platforming: Boundaries of Social Punishment Practices” grant no. 2024/53/B/HS5/04312; PI: dr hab. Wojciech Ciszewski).
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