Let's See You Do Better: An Essay on the Standing to Criticize
In response to criticism, we often say – in these or similar words – “Let’s see you do better!” Prima facie, it looks like this response is a challenge of a certain kind – a challenge to prove that one has what has recently been called standing. More generally, the data here seems to point...
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| Language: | English |
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Michigan Publishing
2024-02-01
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| Series: | Ergo, An Open Access Journal of Philosophy |
| Online Access: | https://journals.publishing.umich.edu/ergo/article/id/5178/ |
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| _version_ | 1850066657210269696 |
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| author | Patrick Todd |
| author_facet | Patrick Todd |
| author_sort | Patrick Todd |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In response to criticism, we often say – in these or similar words – “Let’s see you do better!” Prima facie, it looks like this response is a challenge of a certain kind – a challenge to prove that one has what has recently been called standing. More generally, the data here seems to point a certain kind of norm of criticism: be better. Slightly more carefully: One must: criticize x with respect to standard s only if one is better than x with respect to standard s. In this paper, I defend precisely this norm of criticism – an underexplored norm that is nevertheless ubiquitous in our lives, once we begin looking for it. The be better norm is, I hope to show, continuously invoked in a wide range of ordinary settings, can undergird and explain the widely endorsed non-hypocrisy condition on the standing to blame, and apparent counterexamples to the norm are no such counterexamples at all. I further contend that, given some plausible principles, my previous “moral commitment” account of the moral standing to blame will be extensionally equivalent to the be better norm. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-c9765a14b7a14049a640ebdd452ac476 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2330-4014 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-02-01 |
| publisher | Michigan Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Ergo, An Open Access Journal of Philosophy |
| spelling | doaj-art-c9765a14b7a14049a640ebdd452ac4762025-08-20T02:48:41ZengMichigan PublishingErgo, An Open Access Journal of Philosophy2330-40142024-02-0110010.3998/ergo.5178Let's See You Do Better: An Essay on the Standing to CriticizePatrick Todd0The University of Edinburgh and Lund UniversityIn response to criticism, we often say – in these or similar words – “Let’s see you do better!” Prima facie, it looks like this response is a challenge of a certain kind – a challenge to prove that one has what has recently been called standing. More generally, the data here seems to point a certain kind of norm of criticism: be better. Slightly more carefully: One must: criticize x with respect to standard s only if one is better than x with respect to standard s. In this paper, I defend precisely this norm of criticism – an underexplored norm that is nevertheless ubiquitous in our lives, once we begin looking for it. The be better norm is, I hope to show, continuously invoked in a wide range of ordinary settings, can undergird and explain the widely endorsed non-hypocrisy condition on the standing to blame, and apparent counterexamples to the norm are no such counterexamples at all. I further contend that, given some plausible principles, my previous “moral commitment” account of the moral standing to blame will be extensionally equivalent to the be better norm. https://journals.publishing.umich.edu/ergo/article/id/5178/ |
| spellingShingle | Patrick Todd Let's See You Do Better: An Essay on the Standing to Criticize Ergo, An Open Access Journal of Philosophy |
| title | Let's See You Do Better: An Essay on the Standing to Criticize |
| title_full | Let's See You Do Better: An Essay on the Standing to Criticize |
| title_fullStr | Let's See You Do Better: An Essay on the Standing to Criticize |
| title_full_unstemmed | Let's See You Do Better: An Essay on the Standing to Criticize |
| title_short | Let's See You Do Better: An Essay on the Standing to Criticize |
| title_sort | let s see you do better an essay on the standing to criticize |
| url | https://journals.publishing.umich.edu/ergo/article/id/5178/ |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT patricktodd letsseeyoudobetteranessayonthestandingtocriticize |