MICHAEL D. DOAN ABSTRACT BA Honours (), Mount Allison University, 2006 MA (Philosophy), University of Western Ontario, 2008 What does it mean to be complacent with respect to especially complex ecological and social problems such as global climate change? Although those who are engaged on such problems tend to recognize complacency as a DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY serious worry, we will not find much assistance from philosophers in understanding this concept. Thus, in this dissertation I set myself the task of TITLE OF THESIS: COMPLACENCY AND MOTIVATIONAL developing an account of complacency that is adequate to contexts of deeply entrenched social and environmental injustice. My aims are to understand VICE better what it means to be complacent; and to figure out what is involved in TIME/DATE: 10:00 am, Friday, May 16, 2014 remedying this form of “motivational inertia.”

PLACE: Room 3107, The Mona Campbell Building, 1459 In Chapter 1, I situate my proposed account in the context of an ongoing LeMarchant Street methodological debate among political philosophers. I explain why the methodological prioritization of “ideal theory” is a dangerously misguided approach to theorizing about matters of justice, and argue for the promise of a EXAMINING COMMITTEE: “naturalized” approach to nonideal theory. In Chapter 2, I develop an account of the epistemic dimensions of complacency by considering what it means for Dr. Lisa Tessman, Department of Philosophy, Binghamton University - white people to be complacent with respect to the mass incarceration of State University of New York (External Examiner) people of color in such countries as the . I draw upon “critical Dr. Susan Sherwin, Department of Philosophy, character theory” to support my contention that complacency is a multidimensional form of character damage. In Chapter 3, I discuss further (Reader) what it means to be complacent, this time in the broader context of global Dr. Chike Jeffers, Department of Philosophy, Dalhousie University climate change. Having argued that complacency is a multidimensional form (Reader) of character damage, in this chapter I proceed to examine how such damage is embodied intrapsychically in the form of settled expectations of self- Dr. Duncan MacIntosh, Department of Philosophy, Dalhousie University sufficiency. Finally, in Chapter 4, I consider what is involved in remedying (Co-Supervisor) complacency. I discuss the relationships between repairing character damage Dr. Greg Scherkoske, Department of Philosophy, Dalhousie University and working for broader structural change, exploring some of the ways in (Co-Supervisor) which personal transformation is bound up with building culture and

community for sustainable, long-term engagement.

DEPARTMENTAL Dr. Michael Hymers, Department of Philosophy, Though I do not purport to be offering any recipes for remedying REPRESENTATIVE: Dalhousie University complacency, this project has been born of five odd years of trying to learn CHAIR: Dr. Stephen Coughlan, PhD Defence Panel, enough from philosophy to change it for the better. Faculty of Graduate Studies