On Silencing What It Is and Why It Matters

The phenomenon of silencing has taken on new salience in the wake of #metoo and controversies around free speech. Using tools from the social philosophy of language, Mary Kate McGowan's On Silencing explains, in an accessible way, what silencing is and why it is important. Understanding silencing as a failure of communication, McGowan shows how communication can fail in one of three ways: one can be prevented from speaking, a speaker can be misunderstood, and a speaker can be understood but not affect the world as one should (such as when orders are not followed, refusals are not respected, and assertions are not believed). McGowan also explains how silencing is more likely to happen when we are trying to communicate across difference, and she provides concrete suggestions for what we can do--both as speakers and as hearers--to avoid contributing to harmful forms of silencing.

In addition to explaining a pervasive social phenomenon in an accessible way, On Silencing makes novel contributions to current academic debates about silencing.

Mary Kate McGowan is the Virginia Onderdonk '29 Professor of Philosophy at Wellesley College. She has published in metaphysics, philosophy of law, feminism, and the philosophy of language. Her previous books with Oxford University Press include Speech and Harm: Controversies Over Free Speech (2012), co-edited with Ishani Maitra, Just Words: On Speech and Hidden Harm (2019), and Words in Action: A Textbook in the Social Philosophy of Language (2025), co-authored with Ishani Maitra.