Content area
Abstract
Consent is widely regarded as having special moral significance. I review various examples of what I take to be the standard way of accounting for this, and suggest that, because such views might seem unsatisfying, an alternative theory should be given. I present what I take to be the phenomena which any theory of consent ought to explain. I then describe what I call the 'evidentiary account of consent,' according to which consent's main moral significance is that it can, in certain circumstances, serve as evidence of how we ought to treat others, in light of their interests, and explain how it can make sense of the phenomena. I then consider objections, including several putative counterexamples to the view, as well as several arguments to the effect that the view presupposes the more standard way of accounting for consent's significance.
