From Celebrities to Ordinary Citizen. Limits of the Legitimacy of Social Punishment
From Celebrities to Ordinary Citizen. Limits of the Legitimacy of Social Punishment

Summary/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.

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