Date of Award

2021

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Delon, Nicolas

Area of Concentration

Philosophy

Abstract

This thesis investigates whether and how the shameful and contingent origins of social practices can provide a normative reason against those practices. Chapter one surgery’s some challenges to normative arguments from origins, or normative genealogies, but argues that such arguments can be successful if construed correctly. Chapter two then introduces the practices that will serve as the case studies of this thesis: national and patriotic partiality. One justification for such practices references the relationships involved in nationalism and patriotism and the distinctively important role such relationships play in people’s lives. Finally, chapter three shows why a genealogical approach might yield results that challenge this justification. It does this by outlining the general framework for one sort of genealogical argument against national and patriotic partiality. All in all, I try to vindicate normative arguments from non-vindicatory origins and argue that philosophical defenses of national and patriotic partiality cannot be sufficient without considering the origins of these practices of partiality.

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