Borrow some talking points from famous
philosophers in the name of public health.
By Colin Marshall/The
Conversation August 30, 2020
Colin Marshall is an
associate professor of philosophy at the University of Washington. This story
originally featured on The Conversation.
Multiple studies have shown that masks reduce the transmission of virus-loaded droplets
from people with COVID-19. However, according to a Gallup poll, almost a third of Americans say they rarely or
never wear a mask in public.
This raises a question: Can the anti-maskers be
persuaded to wear masks?
To some, it might appear that such a question
has no ethical dimension. Wearing masks saves lives, so everyone should do it.
Some even believe anti-maskers are simply selfish.
But as a philosopher who studies ethics and persuasion, I
argue that things are more complicated than that.
Kant on love and respect
To start, consider one of the most influential
ethical frameworks in Western thought: that of the German philosopher Immanuel
Kant.
According to Kant, morality is ultimately about
respect and love. Respecting someone, Kant claims, is “limiting our self-esteem by the dignity of
humanity in another person.” In other words, we should refrain from undermining
others’ dignity.
Alongside respect, for Kant, we should also show
others a certain type of love. To love others in the moral sense, he writes, is not about having a feeling, but is rather to
“make others’ ends my own (provided only that these are not immoral).”
That is, moral love requires that we help others
achieve their aims, as long as those aims aren’t immoral.
What is social dignity?
One could ask why trying to persuade someone to
wear a mask would threaten their dignity.
Consider one type of dignity in particular: social
dignity. According to ethicist Suzy
Killmister, social dignity consists in someone living up to the standards that her community holds
her to. The specific standards that matter are those which the community sees
as being “shameful” to violate.
For example, imagine a teenager from a
conservative religious community who attends a secular public school. According
to her religious community’s standards, it’s shameful to dress immodestly.
According to the standards of her classmates, however, it’s shamefully
unfashionable to dress conservatively. She faces a dilemma of dignity: No
matter how she dresses, she cannot achieve full social dignity.
Shame and social standards
Because a significant majority of Americans do
wear masks, and because of its importance in protecting public health,
mask-wearing has become a social standard connected to shame.
In response, epidemiologist Julia Marcus has
recently cautioned that it’s not effective to shame people who
do not wear masks. Instead, she proposed approaching anti-maskers with empathy.
To see the ethical importance of Marcus’
suggestion, consider another finding from a Gallup poll: While most groups
do report always or often wearing masks in public, that’s not true for
Republicans. Over 50 percent of Republicans say they never, rarely, or only
sometimes do. Similarly, other studies have found sharp regional differences in
mask-wearing.
A Republican whose social group sees wearing a
mask as shameful faces a dilemma of dignity. For example, a sheriff in
Washington state told a cheering crowd that he wouldn’t enforce the
state’s mask mandate. His advice was: “Don’t be a sheep.”
Similarly, psychologist Peter Glick has
suggested that wearing a mask is seen by some groups as “unmanly” because it appears to them as a weakness.
People in such communities are subject to
anti-mask standards, even as their larger society’s standards require masks.
Their dignity is therefore in a precarious position. Ethically speaking, then,
any respectful engagement with them calls for a recognition of that fact, not a
blunt attempt at persuasion.
Making small efforts
Remember that Kant says that, alongside
respecting others’ dignity, we must also help them achieve their aims, provided
those aims aren’t immoral. Refusing to wear a mask might well be immoral.
However, trying to maintain one’s social status
by living up to society’s standards isn’t intrinsically immoral. If that’s what
is driving anti-maskers’ refusals, then Kant’s framework could help pro-maskers
see the ethical nuance of the situation.
Appreciating this ethical challenge could also
help those who are seeking to persuade anti-maskers. They might need to offer
anti-maskers some way of maintaining their dignity in their anti-mask social
groups while wearing a mask in other settings.
For example, they might find examples of
conservatives, including President Trump, who wear a mask in some contexts
but not others. After all, even small efforts in mask-wearing can save lives.
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