Privacy and Public Space

BUDAPEST COLLOQUIUM EVENT

ABSTRACT

We can distinguish two accounts of the norms of Privacy. On what I'll call the Traffic Model, the point of such norms is to protect the private spheres of individuals from the intrusions of other individuals. On what I'll call the Theater Model the point is rather to give our shared public space a certain character. Something like the Traffic Model is assumed by most philosophical accounts of privacy (e.g. Thomas Nagel's 'Concealment and Exposure') but the Theater Model may provide a better account of those norms of privacy we actually recognise.