This is a lecture on William Scheuerman's article, "Whistleblowing as Civil Disobedience: The Case of Edward Snowden," Philosophy and Social Criticism (2014). It is for an introduction to philosophy course at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC, Canada

1. SCHEUERMAN ON
SNOWDEN & CIVIL
DISOBEDIENCE
PHIL 102, SPRING 2017
CHRISTINA HENDRICKS
UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
Except images licensed otherwise, this
presentation is licensed CC BY 4.0

2. EDWARD SNOWDEN
• Formerly worked for
Central Intelligence
Agency in the U.S.
• Former contractor for
U.S. gov’t
• Leaked classified info
from National Security
Agency in U.S. in 2013
• U.S. charges with
violating Espionage act;
currently asylum in
Russia
Edward Snowden, by Laura Poitras/Praxis films,
Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY 3.0

3. WHAT WAS LEAKED?
Among many other things...
• NSA collects call data from many phone
companies in U.S.; intercepts all phone
calls in Bahamas & Afghanistan
• Xkeyscore: “You could read anyone’s email
in the world” –Snowden
• U.S spies on other countries’ embassies &
leaders
• NSA collects contact lists from email & IM

4. AFTERMATH OF LEAKS, FOR
SNOWDEN
• Went to Hong Kong to make revelations
• Charged with:
o Theft of gov’t property
o Violating 1917 Espionage Act
• Flew to Russia, tried to go to Latin America
o Passport revoked by U.S.
o U.S. pressures countries on route to Latin
America not to let plane land
o Still in Russia on temporary permit

5. SCHEUERMAN’S ARGUMENT
Components of civil disobedience (611, 617)
Public,
communicative
Aim to change
law
Non-violent Conscientiou
s
Protest signs icon public domain on thenounproject.com; Woman thinking icon made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com, licensed CC BY 3.0
Last
resort
Accept
punishment
?

6. CONSCIENTIOUSNESS
Don’t leak classified intelligence
documents
4th & 5th
Amendments
US Constitution
Article 12,
Universal Decl.
Human Rights
Nuremberg trial
ruling
Selflessly,
self-sacrifice
Fundamenta
l rights &
freedoms

7. GROUPS
• Why might some argue that accepting
punishment should be required for
legitimate civil disobedience?
• What does Scheuerman argue in
response?
• What do you think?
https://is.gd/phil102civildisobedience

8. ACCEPT PUNISHMENT?
Why might this be important for CD?
• Respect for law: e.g., MLK Jr. in “Letter” (p.
4)
o Don’t treat differently than other criminals
• Gives evidence of “unselfishness and public-
mindedness, their moral seriousness ...”
(Sheuerman p. 618)
• Deterrence (618)

9. SCHEUERMAN’S ARGUMENTS RE:
ACCEPTING PUNISHMENT
Moral seriousness,
unselfishness
Deterrence
Respect for
law
Don’t treat
differently than
other criminals
Snowden’s sacrifices,
even if not official
punishment
Only if possibility of basic
“rule-of-law virtues” (619)
But civil disobedients
are different

10. A LARGER POINT
Should one be required to submit to
punishment for breaking the law of a state
when one believes that state is not itself
following international laws or human rights?
“...we need to build a stronger
global legal and especially
human rights system ...” (622)