The Human in a Dehumanizing World

The Human in a Dehumanizing World
Title The Human in a Dehumanizing World PDF eBook
Author Coblentz, Jessica
Publisher Orbis Books
Pages 270
Release 2022-04-20
Genre Religion
ISBN 1608339203

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"CTS annual volume focusing on dehumanization and theological anthropology, in such areas as sexual harassment, racial justice, and decolonization"--

Reclaimed

Reclaimed
Title Reclaimed PDF eBook
Author Andy Steiger
Publisher Zondervan
Pages 192
Release 2020-09-01
Genre Religion
ISBN 0310107237

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We live in an era of polarizing political and religious disagreement. Despite the lip service our society pays to tolerance, it's becoming more and more difficult to look past our differences and to recognize our common humanity. The way that we treat each other is a direct result of how we see one another, and our culture is full of warning signs that we aren't seeing each other correctly. In Reclaimed, author and cultural critic Andy Steiger explores the trend toward dehumanization that underlies our fraught times. People on both sides of the political aisle and from all walks of life share a deep desire for better understanding, justice, and human dignity. Yet we're uncertain how to achieve these aims. Steiger points to Jesus as the basis for rediscovering our common ground and our shared humanity. In Jesus we find not only that humans are unique, valuable, and bearers of rights and responsibilities, but also that our dehumanizing tendencies--our worst inclinations toward inhumanity--can be redeemed and restored. Jesus enables us to be fully human, and it's in him that we rediscover the kind of relationships and society for which so many people today are longing.

Making Monsters

Making Monsters
Title Making Monsters PDF eBook
Author David Livingstone Smith
Publisher Harvard University Press
Pages 353
Release 2021-10-12
Genre Philosophy
ISBN 0674545567

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A leading scholar explores what it means to dehumanize othersÑand how and why we do it. ÒI wouldnÕt have accepted that they were human beings. You would see an infant whoÕs just learning to smile, and it smiles at you, but you still kill it.Ó So a Hutu man explained to an incredulous researcher, when asked to recall how he felt slaughtering Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994. Such statements are shocking, yet we recognize them; we hear their echoes in accounts of genocides, massacres, and pogroms throughout history. How do some people come to believe that their enemies are monsters, and therefore easy to kill? In Making Monsters David Livingstone Smith offers a poignant meditation on the philosophical and psychological roots of dehumanization. Drawing on harrowing accounts of lynchings, Smith establishes what dehumanization is and what it isnÕt. When we dehumanize our enemy, we hold two incongruous beliefs at the same time: we believe our enemy is at once subhuman and fully human. To call someone a monster, then, is not merely a resort to metaphorÑdehumanization really does happen in our minds. Turning to an abundance of historical examples, Smith explores the relationship between dehumanization and racism, the psychology of hierarchy, what it means to regard others as human beings, and why dehumanizing others transforms them into something so terrifying that they must be destroyed. Meticulous but highly readable, Making Monsters suggests that the process of dehumanization is deeply seated in our psychology. It is precisely because we are all human that we are vulnerable to the manipulations of those trading in the politics of demonization and violence.

On Inhumanity

On Inhumanity
Title On Inhumanity PDF eBook
Author David Livingstone Smith
Publisher Oxford University Press
Pages 192
Release 2020-05-25
Genre Philosophy
ISBN 0190923024

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The Rwandan genocide, the Holocaust, the lynching of African Americans, the colonial slave trade: these are horrific episodes of mass violence spawned from racism and hatred. We like to think that we could never see such evils again--that we would stand up and fight. But something deep in the human psyche--deeper than prejudice itself--leads people to persecute the other: dehumanization, or the human propensity to think of others as less than human. An award-winning author and philosopher, Smith takes an unflinching look at the mechanisms of the mind that encourage us to see someone as less than human. There is something peculiar and horrifying in human psychology that makes us vulnerable to thinking of whole groups of people as subhuman creatures. When governments or other groups stand to gain by exploiting this innate propensity, and know just how to manipulate words and images to trigger it, there is no limit to the violence and hatred that can result. Drawing on numerous historical and contemporary cases and recent psychological research, On Inhumanity is the first accessible guide to the phenomenon of dehumanization. Smith walks readers through the psychology of dehumanization, revealing its underlying role in both notorious and lesser-known episodes of violence from history and current events. In particular, he considers the uncomfortable kinship between racism and dehumanization, where beliefs involving race are so often precursors to dehumanization and the horrors that flow from it. On Inhumanity is bracing and vital reading in a world lurching towards authoritarian political regimes, resurgent white nationalism, refugee crises that breed nativist hostility, and fast-spreading racist rhetoric. The book will open your eyes to the pervasive dangers of dehumanization and the prejudices that can too easily take root within us, and resist them before they spread into the wider world.

Dehumanizing the Vulnerable

Dehumanizing the Vulnerable
Title Dehumanizing the Vulnerable PDF eBook
Author William Brennan
Publisher Loyola Press
Pages 0
Release 1995
Genre Language and ethics
ISBN 9780829408218

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Shockingly relevant today, this hard-hitting study shows how dehumanizing language was and is being used to justify violent acts against vulnerable peoples--past and present--including the unborn, the elderly, women, Jews, and victims of Soviet tyranny. Dr. Brennan's argument focuses on the plight of today's unwanted, before and after birth and in the later stages of life.

Less Than Human

Less Than Human
Title Less Than Human PDF eBook
Author David Livingstone Smith
Publisher St. Martin's Griffin
Pages 0
Release 2012-02-28
Genre Social Science
ISBN 9781250003836

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Winner of the 2012 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Nonfiction A revelatory look at why we dehumanize each other, with stunning examples from world history as well as today's headlines "Brute." "Cockroach." "Lice." "Vermin." People often regard members of their own kind as less than human, and use terms like these for those whom they wish to harm, enslave, or exterminate. Dehumanization has made atrocities like the Holocaust, the genocide in Rwanda, and the slave trade possible. But it isn't just a relic of the past. We still find it in war, genocide, xenophobia, and racism. Smith shows that it is a dangerous mistake to think of dehumanization as the exclusive preserve of Nazis, communists, terrorists, Jews, Palestinians, or any other monster of the moment. We are all potential dehumanizers, just as we are all potential objects of dehumanization. The problem of dehumanization is everyone's problem. Less Than Human is the first book to illuminate precisely how and why we sometimes think of others as subhuman creatures. It draws on a rich mix of history, evolutionary psychology, biology, anthropology, and philosophy to document the pervasiveness of dehumanization, describe its forms, and explain why we so often resort to it. Less Than Human is a powerful and highly original study of the roots of human violence and bigotry, and it as timely as it is relevant.

Less Than Human

Less Than Human
Title Less Than Human PDF eBook
Author David Livingstone Smith
Publisher Macmillan + ORM
Pages 337
Release 2011-03-01
Genre Social Science
ISBN 1429968567

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Winner of the 2012 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Nonfiction A revelatory look at why we dehumanize each other, with stunning examples from world history as well as today's headlines "Brute." "Cockroach." "Lice." "Vermin." "Dog." "Beast." These and other monikers are constantly in use to refer to other humans—for political, religious, ethnic, or sexist reasons. Human beings have a tendency to regard members of their own kind as less than human. This tendency has made atrocities like the Holocaust, the genocide in Rwanda, and the slave trade possible, and yet we still find it in phenomena such as xenophobia, homophobia, military propaganda, and racism. Less Than Human draws on a rich mix of history, psychology, biology, anthropology and philosophy to document the pervasiveness of dehumanization, describe its forms, and explain why we so often resort to it. David Livingstone Smith posits that this behavior is rooted in human nature, but gives us hope in also stating that biological traits are malleable, showing us that change is possible. Less Than Human is a chilling indictment of our nature, and is as timely as it is relevant.