Constructing the Human: Humanness and Animality in the Ancient World

Catalog description

What does it mean to be human? How do we define “Humanness” and what assumptions do we make about our own distinctions between “Humans” and “Animals” when we define humanness? This course will look at the process of constructing the human category in the ancient world and compare that process to our own modern conceptions of humanness. In what ways are they similar and in what ways are they different? How can ancient examples of the human category inform our own ethical understandings of what it means to be human?