The Ethics of Retraction

This essay examines the ethics of retraction, using the tools of speech act theory. We are fundamentally imperfect beings who make mistakes, as any ethics usable in the actual world needs to acknowledge. Because we make mistakes, repair is an essential category of ethical action. Retraction has many uses, and not all of them are reparative. But, I will argue, retraction is a central tool of repair. We use retraction to repair ourselves, and to repair the social world, including our relationships. Thus understanding the ethics of retraction is philosophically pressing. I begin the essay by offering a pragmatic analysis of retraction and its success conditions. I will then make the case for why retraction is ethically substantive, and for the need for a developed ethics of retraction. After that, I divide my analysis into three parts. I ask: When is retraction possible; when is it ethically permissible; and, finally, when is it ethically advisable or obligatory, as part of a project of repair. This final section explores what kinds of repair retraction can accomplish, and when retraction is the best tool of repair.