Oppressive Praise

Oppressive Praise examines the expressions we often use to elevate others, esteem them, and celebrate the things they do. These expressions are a pervasive feature of social life: within families, between friends or colleagues, in institutional settings such as education and employment. Despite this, praise has attracted comparatively little philosophical attention, perhaps because--unlike blame--praise is assumed to be a benefit, an expression of positive appraisal that requires little scrutiny or justification. Jules Holroyd argues that, on the contrary, our practices of praising can be harmful, and implicated in oppression. The book addresses the following key questions: when and why is praise oppressive? What are the mechanisms by which expressions of praise sustain oppression? How does thinking about oppressive praise illuminate our understanding of the function of praise in our social practices more generally? What norms should govern our expressions of praise, and how can we improve our practices--both interpersonal and institutional--of praising? Cases of oppressive praise are employed to develop a diagnosis of when and why praise is oppressive, and an account of praise that focuses on its function in affirming and entrenching values in a community. This role of praise is essential to understanding moral appraisal as a social practice, and one that can be implicated in social hierarchy and oppression. Holroyd offers an ameliorative framework: a set of norms for how to express praise; and for how we might respond to and resist oppressive praise. Oppressive Praise connects philosophical work on oppression with debates about responsibility, epistemic, distributive, and standing norms of appraisal, structural injustices, and practices of honorific commemoration.

Jules Holroyd is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Sheffield, with research interests in social and political philosophy, feminist philosophy, and moral psychology. Prior to joining the department at Sheffield in 2016, they had positions at Cambridge, Cardiff, and Nottingham. They were a Mind Association Fellow 2022-2023.