The ethics of plagiarism reconsidered: The oratory of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Abstract

The ethics of plagiarism is reconsidered in a light different from the traditional view of plagiarism as universally unethical theft and deception. Plagiarism as unethical is not a universal, invariable, culture‐free principle on the order of a Kantian Categorical Imperative. Rather plagiarism as unethical is a communication norm deeply imbedded in the Euro‐American tradition of print orientation, individual originality, ideas as private property, and capitalistic commodification. Within the African‐American oral culture and folk‐preaching traditions, where language and ideas are viewed as communal resources to be shared and adapted, Martin Luther King's oratorical plagiarism may be seen as natural, accepted, and ethical.