Content area
Full text
HEC Forum (2007) 19 (2): 125143.
DOI 10.1007/s10730-007-9035-4 Springer 2007
Introduction
Much of human action seeks to influence the thinking or behaviors of others. People can be physically forced to perform specific behaviors and they can also be influenced by non-physical means. Children are often physically forced to do things or not do things. Politicians, clergy, salespeople and courtroom lawyers use non-physical strategies to influence others. Influence is a set of interpersonal skills that can be learned, practiced, and mastered (Zuker, 1991, p. 5). Persuasion and coercion are types of influence. Persuasion is commonly considered to be morally justifiable, while coercion is considered to be unethical and morally justified only in limited types of circumstances. The evidence for a claim that some action or situation is coercive or persuasive is therefore evaluated in different ways depending on many contextual variables, chief among these are moral considerations. Claims and counter claims of coercion and persuasion are made by embodied speakers within a particular history and context, which may include conflicting ethical systems.
The distinctions between the concepts of persuasion and coercion have long been argued in the philosophical literature, and since the 1930s the methods of empirical science have been used to study the processes of influencing others. I will review the philosophical approach and the empirical approach to distinguishing persuasion from coercion and provide evidence for the claim that the difference between persuasion and coercion is not precise or self-evident, and that definitions differ with regard to time, place, language, participants and culture. Critical questions implicit in these approaches are included in each section. Finally, I will discuss the implications this review poses for ethicists.
_____________________________________________________________________________________Penny Powers, Ph.D., R.N., Professor, School of Nursing, Thompson Rivers University, 900 McGill Road, Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada V2C 5N3; email: [email protected].
Persuasion and Coercion: A Critical Review of Philosophical and Empirical Approaches
Penny Powers
126 HEC Forum (2007) 19 (2): 125143.
Philosophical Considerations
Persuasion and coercion have long been subject to discussion in philosophy. The word coercion comes from the Latin verb arcere, to shut in, also the root of the word incarceration, and implies physical force to produce or change behavior. The word persuasion comes from the Latin verb persuadere, to persuade, from per, strongly, and suadere,...