))
On Inhumanity with David Livingstone Smith
Manage episode 293384807 series 2827257
Inhalt bereitgestellt von J. Paul Neeley. Alle Podcast-Inhalte, einschließlich Episoden, Grafiken und Podcast-Beschreibungen, werden direkt von J. Paul Neeley oder seinem Podcast-Plattformpartner hochgeladen und bereitgestellt. Wenn Sie glauben, dass jemand Ihr urheberrechtlich geschütztes Werk ohne Ihre Erlaubnis nutzt, können Sie dem hier beschriebenen Verfahren folgen https://de.player.fm/legal.
“Dehumanisation both justifies and motivates acts of extraordinary violence - but it is not in any sense an innate disposition”
Here lies the terrifying quandary: if humans are the most social of all primates and mammals, if our sociality and capacity for collaboration is at the very heart of our success as a species, how are we able to engage in such acts of hideous violence towards each other?
“Dehumanisation is a psychological response to political forces”
David Livingstone Smith explains how two key ideas underpin the psychology of Dehumanisation: Psychological Essentialism and Hierarchical Thinking, false heuristics that are nevertheless deeply embedded in all of us.
But he goes further. To understand the depths of cruelty and humiliation, the ritualistic violence, the near-religious ecstasy of moral purpose that often comes with genocide and torture, we need to understand the mind of the Perpetrator.
To the perpetrator, their victim is both human and non-human, vermin and all-powerful. More than any physical danger, the victim represents a metaphysical cognitive threat - and becomes a monster to be exterminated.
“When we say ‘we must put them in their place’, it’s a deep idea: we want to put ‘them’ in their metaphysical place”
Listen to David explain:
- The metaphysical threat of the ‘other’
- The Uncanny - and its threat to our sense of purity and order
- Dehumanisation as psychosis
- Why cruelty and humiliation are such intrinsic elements of dehumanisation
- What we can do to fix it.
“We are disposed to have difficulty harming one another, and yet…”
Works cited include:
- Arthur O. Lovejoy’s Great Chain of Being
- Ernst Jentsch on The Psychology of the Uncanny
- Masahiro Mori’s Uncanny Valley
- Mary Douglas’ Purity and Danger
- Noel Carroll and The Philosophy of Horror
Read the Full Transcript
David Livingstone Smith is professor of philosophy at the University of New England. He earned his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of London, Kings College. He is the author of many books, including On Inhumanity: Dehumanization and How To Resist It
On Opinion is a member of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.
Listen to The Science of Politics.
Learn all about On Opinion
Meet Turi Munthe: https://twitter.com/turi
Learn more about the Parlia project here: https://www.parlia.com/about
And visit us at: https://www.parlia.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
45 Episoden
Teilen
