ESPF Colloquium: The Functions of Oppressive Praise

Speaker: Jules Holroyd (Sheffield)

'I bring together recent work on the oppressive dimensions of praise, with work on the functions of appraisals. Theorists have attributed a range of functions to our practice(s) of expressing praise: communicative functions (Macnamara); agency improving functions (Vargas); community building functions (Calhoun); norm affirming functions (Shoemaker and Vargas, myself). But what sense of function do these theorists each have in mind? I canvas some options, from the literature on functions, and argue that in light of the ways in which praise can be oppressive, a concern-relative account of function is needed if our practices of expressing praise are to be justified. In so arguing, the paper clarifies functional approaches to moral appraisal.'