Radical Pluralism

Abstract This chapter champions the normative complexity of stereotyping and argues for a novel solution to the puzzle of stereotyping. It begins with an observation: no “essence” of wrongful stereotyping has been found in this book, no single property or set of properties that all wrongful cases share. Nor can the wrongs of stereotyping be boiled down to an elegant number of two or three. Instead, attention to lived experience has revealed that stereotyping can be wrong—when it is—in many ways and for many reasons: because it is disrespectful, harmful, fails to treat persons as equals, undermines freedoms, and more. Furthermore, it is important to keep this list of wrongs open-ended. Exploring different ways of modeling normative complexity, it settles on a cluster theory. Readers discover a new, radically pluralistic theory of what’s morally wrong with stereotyping capable of recognizing normative complexity and the ways in which unjust social environments give rise to—and sustain—wrongful stereotyping. The chapter ends by sketching radical pluralism’s strengths as well as ways in which it could be developed in the future.