The Norms of Advice

We have ethical expectations of advisors, but it is not easy to say what they are. This chapter offers the first contemporary account of the norms of advice. The ethical dimensions of advising, and its susceptibility to resentment, cannot be fully appreciated unless one sees advice as an act of help, with all the implications for dignity that brings. The chapter begins with an exploration of dignity, before presenting five norms of advice: that advice should address the advisee as a practical reasoner; be discretionary; other-regarding; sincere; and based upon the advisor’s best knowledge and reasoning. The ways in which each norm upholds advice’s illocutionary point (to help an advisee see how to proceed) and preserves its distinctive illocutionary force (which allows us to recognize speech as advice) are explained via a series of cases.