Connected by Commitment: Oppression and Our Responsibility to Undermine It (Oxford 2017)

Mara Marin
Postdoctoral Affiliate, Centre for Ethics
University of Toronto

Commentators:
Shannon Dea (Philosophy, University of Waterloo)
Kerry Rittich (Law, University of Toronto)
Meredith Schwartz (Philosophy, Ryerson University)
Torrey Shanks (Political Science, University of Toronto)

Saying that political and social oppression is a deeply unjust and widespread condition of life is not a terribly controversial statement. Likewise, theorists of justice frequently consider our obligation to not turn a blind eye to oppression. But what is our culpability in the endurance of oppression?

In this book, Mara Marin complicates the primary ways in which we make sense of human and political relationships and our obligations within them. Rather than thinking of relationships in terms of our intentions, Marin thinks of them as open-ended and subject to ongoing commitments. Commitments create open-ended expectations and vulnerabilities on the part of others, and therefore also obligations. By this rationale, our actions sustain oppressive or productive structures in virtue of their cumulative effects, not the intentions of the actors.When we violate our obligations we oppress others.

Wed, Feb 14, 2018
12:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto
Rm 200, Larkin Building