Dehumanization, Inhumanity, and Evil

Catalog description

The goal of this course is to make sense of humanity by making sense of inhumanity in its moral and psychological dimensions. We’ll do so by engaging with cutting-edge work on dehumanization—treating or regarding people as nonhuman—in philosophy, psychology, genocide studies, and other disciplines. Together we’ll address such questions as: why are ordinary people sometimes motivated to treat each other in deeply immoral ways? Do people who commit such atrocities as torture, enslavement, or mass killing tend to see the humanity of their victims? Can people truly be treated or regarded as (sex) objects, nonhuman animals, or subhuman creatures? If so, does thinking of common wrongful practices—like slavery, sexual harassment, or genocide—in these terms shed light on how, exactly, they’re wrong? To what extent, for example, are racism and sexism best conceived as a form of disregard for the humanity of the person or group in question? Finally, what is the relationship, if any, between dehumanization and evil?