#390 Justin Tosi - Grandstanding: The Use and Abuse of Moral Talk
RECORDED ON NOVEMBER 2nd 2020.
Dr. Justin Tosi is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Texas Tech University. He works in social, political, legal, and moral philosophy, and especially on state legitimacy, special obligations, and social morality. He’s the author of Grandstanding: The Use and Abuse of Moral Talk (co-authored with Brandon Warmke).
In this episode, we talk about Grandstanding. We define grandstanding, and the different types of it. We talk about the distinction between moral grandstanding and virtue signaling. We ask if moral grandstanding is a recent phenomenon, and how we can abuse moral talk. Dr. Tosi explains the five ways people grandstand, and the social costs and benefits of it. We then tackle political grandstanding, and address the relationship between morality and politics, how politically active people can alienate moderates form politics, and people’s overconfidence in their moral and political views. We finish with some solutions to fight back against moral grandstanding.
Time Links:
What is grandstanding?
The differences between moral grandstanding and virtue signaling
Is moral grandstanding a recent phenomenon?
Abusing moral talk
Five ways of grandstanding
The social costs and benefits of grandstanding
The relationship between morality and politics
Alienating moderates from politics
Are people more confident about their moral and political views than they should be?
Solutions for moral grandstanding
Follow Dr. Tosi’s work!
Follow Dr. Tosi’s work:
Faculty page: https://bit.ly/2HY4wPe
Website: https://bit.ly/34RDGRJ
PhilPeople page: https://bit.ly/361VYzi
Grandstanding: https://amzn.to/3eptSl2