Overview

We are all guilty of it. We call people terrible names in conversation or online. We vilify those with whom we disagree, and make bolder claims than we could defend. We want to be seen as taking the moral high ground not just to make a point, or move a debate forward, but to look a certain way--incensed, or compassionate, or committed to a cause. We exaggerate. In other words, we grandstand. Nowhere is this more evident than in public discourse today, and especially as it plays out across the internet. To philosophers Justin Tosi and Brandon Warmke, who have written extensively about moral grandstanding, such one-upmanship is not just annoying, but dangerous. As politics gets more and more polarized, people on both sides of the spectrum move further and further apart when they let grandstanding get in the way of engaging one another. The pollution of our most urgent conversations with self-interest damages the very causes they are meant to forward. Drawing from work in psychology, economics, and political science, and along with contemporary examples spanning the political spectrum, the authors dive deeply into why and how we grandstand. Using the analytic tools of psychology and moral philosophy, they explain what drives us to behave in this way, and what we stand to lose by taking it too far. Most importantly, they show how, by avoiding grandstanding, we can re-build a public square worth participating in.

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9780190900182

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Reviews

Tosi and Warmke have produced something genuinely rare--a work of philosophy that addresses issues of great practical importance with writing that is lucid and accessible. Anyone concerned about a public culture of outrage and polarization will benefit from reading this book. It even explains how Nietzsche can shed light on our politics! -- Dan Moller, University of Maryland, and author of Governing Least: A New England Libertarianism (OUP, 2019) Justin Tosi and Brandon Warmke have written a great book on a topic that has been underexplored in academic literature: moral grandstanding. Moral grandstanding occurs when someone acts on their desire to impress others by showing off their moral qualities. As Tosi and Warmke discuss, there are dangers to moral grandstanding, and those dangers have been amplified by social media, leading to 'pile-ons' and extreme outrage. Their careful analysis of this issue has practical implications for devising strategies to mitigate posturing outrage. This book is an important contribution to social philosophy, but in addition to that it is highly accessible and a very important read for those who want a better understanding of this social phenomenon. -- Julia Driver, University of Texas at Austin We live in an age of moral outrage--every day billions plug into social media to learn about, or share, the latest source of outrage. While moral language can inspire social change, it can also fracture society, fuel conflict, and foster harassment. This highly accessible and timely book by Tosi & Warmke explains why moral grandstanding can be contagious as well as corrosive to our discourse. This excellent book is a must read for anyone interested in civil discourse, moral cognition, or social media. -- Jay Van Bavel, New York University

Author Information

Justin Tosi is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Texas Tech University. He works on moral, social, political, and legal philosophy. Brandon Warmke is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Bowling Green State University. He writes about ethics and politics.

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