UC Riverside

Recent philosophical analyses of etiquette argue that systems of etiquette serve crucial moral functions in that they promote a variety of moral goods. This dissertation argues that existing systems of etiquette fall short of meeting these functions in important ways when it comes to autistic people. Autistic people often have difficulty navigating social norms, including etiquette norms. The main argument I make is that these social difficulties are in part caused by the way existing systems of etiquette are constructed to reflect allistic (i.e. non-autistic) psychology, and that this leads existing systems of etiquette to fail in fulfilling their moral functions for both autistic and allistic people. The first chapter begins by arguing against the empathy deficit theory of autism. Autistic social difficulties have predominantly been attributed to empathic deficits in autistic people. I argue against this theory and in favor of the theory that many autistic self-advocates and researchers favor instead which I call the attunement theory. This theory holds that autistic social difficulties are a result of the psychological mismatch between autistic and allistic people. The second chapter considers ways in which systems of etiquette may contribute to these social difficulties inasmuch as they are built around the psychological features of allistic people. I argue that existing systems of etiquette are allocentric in that they privilege allistic psychological wellbeing, rely on implicit communication, and frequently employ pretense. In the third chapter, I provide an overview of the important moral functions of manners highlighted by recent philosophical analyses and argue that the allocentrism of manners causes systems of etiquette to fail in these moral functions in important ways. I argue that allocentric systems of etiquette fail to promote the expressive goods, self-respect, psychological and social goods that they are supposed to, denying autistics equivalent access to these goods and sometimes depriving allistics of them when interacting with autistics. In the fourth and final chapter, I consider some potential solutions to the allocentrism of manners, such as changes to conventions of etiquette, education and stigma reduction regarding autism, and promoting certain social virtues. I conclude that these solutions are worth further consideration, but that they have important limitations.