Political Correctness: A Philosophical Inquiry

In recent decades, political correctness has emerged as a contentious and widespread issue in global political and social discourse, influencing policies in numerous contexts. The rise of political correctness has also increased political and intellectual criticism, especially from those who see it as an unjustified and inefficient restriction on free speech. The term's enduring significance and the lack of literature on political correctness's normative foundations makes an analytical study of it relevant. This study intends to explore the term within the framework of political philosophy. While the study primarily aims to be explicatory it will also endeavor to present an argument that enhances the comprehension of political correctness as a normative appeal. This work explores normative references to political correctness, concluding that equality and non-discrimination are central values. However, in terms of speech the type of equality that would be pursued could not be found in the arguments who favor equality over freedom of speech. In this direction, then, this article aims to explicate and discuss how political correctness, as a norm, can be understood first as an effort for equality. Secondly and more specifically, it will be proposed that political correctness should be seen as an outgrowth moral effort resulting from the fusion of theories of recognition and epistemic justice. As such an effort, political correctness functions as a norm of granting recognition to others on equal terms while adjusting language by taking their differences into account. Being an effort of epistemic justice, it also aims to eliminate prejudices and stigmatization from language of dominant groups to give equal voice and opportunity of correct self-expression to those who are marginalized and oppressed.