Undergraduate Course: Objectification, Dehumanisation, and Othering (PHIL10183)
Course Outline
School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
Summary | This course introduces leading philosophical accounts of objectification, dehumanisation, and othering, and investigates the degree of overlap between the three notions. We will also examine scepticism about the moral, social, and philosophical significance of these notions, looking closely at a number of case-studies in order to assess the plausibility of this kind of scepticism. |
Course description |
This course introduces leading philosophical accounts of objectification, dehumanisation, and othering, and investigates the degree of overlap betThis course looks at three ways that certain behaviours, attitudes, institutions, representations, and ways of using language have been morally criticised. At a first approximation, to objectify is to treat or represent a person as a mere thing; to dehumanise is to treat or represent a person as lacking in humanity, for example, as animal-, insect-, or disease-like; while to treat someone as the Other is to enjoy and depend on their recognition of oneself as a subject, while failing to fully reciprocate this recognition. However, these initial characterisations leave crucial questions unanswered. It¿s left unclear what it is to treat people in these ways, in what ways such treatment might be morally problematic, and to what extent these three notions overlap (and whether we¿re really dealing with three distinct notions here at all). Moreover, philosophers such as Kate Manne and Mari Mikkola have recently denied the significance of objectification and dehumanisation, while Nancy Bauer has questioned whether philosophers can say anything true and significant about them. This course introduces leading philosophical accounts of objectification, dehumanisation, and othering, and investigates the degree of overlap between the three notions. We will also examine scepticism about the moral, social, and philosophical significance of these notions, looking closely at a number of case-studies in order to assess the plausibility of this kind of scepticism. These case-studies will include pornography, epistemic injustice (Miranda Fricker¿s term for ways in which one can be harmed in one¿s capacity as an epistemic subject), and the roles of dehumanising language and imagery in oppression and violence.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites |
Students MUST have passed:
Mind, Matter and Language (PHIL08014) AND
Knowledge and Reality (PHIL08017)
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Co-requisites | |
Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | Students studying on MA Cognitive Science (Humanities) are permitted to take this course without having met the pre-requisites of Mind, Matter and Language (PHIL08014) and Knowledge and Reality (PHIL08014). However, it is advisable that students discuss the suitability of the course with their PT and the course organiser before enrolling. |
Course Delivery Information
Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate core skills in philosophy, including interpreting and critically engaging with philosophical texts, evaluating arguments and theories, and developing one's own ideas in response to the issues discussed.
- Understand, explain, and critically evaluate the principal theories of objectification, dehumanisation, and othering, as well as the most pressing issues facing such theories.
- Write short, clear papers on the topics raised in the class, manifesting the core skills listed above.
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Reading List
Representative readings:
Nancy Bauer, 2015, How to Do Things with Pornography. Harvard University Press.
Simone De Beauvoir, 1949, The Second Sex. Vintage.
Ann Cahill, 2011, Overcoming Objectification: A Carnal Ethics. Routledge.
Patricia Hill Collins, 2000, Black Feminist Thought (Second Edition). Routledge.
Emmalon Davis, 2016, ¿Types, Tokens, and Spokespersons: A Case for Credibility Excess as Testimonial Injustice¿. Hypatia 31: 485-501.
Franz Fanon, 1952, Black Skin, White Masks. Pluto Press.
Franz Fanon, 1961, The Wretched of the Earth. Penguin Classics.
Miranda Fricker, 2007, Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of Knowing. Oxford University Press.
Sally Haslanger, 1993, ¿On Being Objective and Being Objectified¿. Reprinted in her Resisting Reality: Social Construction and Social Critique. Oxford University Press.
Timo Jütten, 2016, ¿Sexual Objectification¿. Ethics 127: 27-49.
Rae Langton, 2007, Sexual Solipsism: Philosophical Essays on Pornography and Objectification. Oxford University Press.
Kate Manne, 2017, Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny. Oxford University Press.
Aidan McGlynn, 2019, ¿Epistemic Objectification as the Primary Harm of Testimonial Injustice¿. Episteme.
Mari Mikkola, 2016, The Wrong of Injustice: Dehumanization and its Role in Feminist Philosophy. Oxford University Press.
Mari Mikkola (ed.), 2017, Beyond Speech: Pornography and Analytic Feminist Philosophy. Oxford University Press.
Charles Mills, 1997, The Racial Contract. Cornell University Press.
Martha Nussbaum, 1995, ¿Objectification¿. Philosophy and Public Affairs 24: 249-291.
Gaile Pohlhaus Jr., 2014, ¿Discerning the Primary Epistemic Harm in Cases of Testimonial Injustice¿. Social Epistemology 28: 99-114.
David Livingstone Smith, 2011, Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others. St Martins Press.
Lynne Tirrell, 2012, ¿Genocidal Language Games¿. In Ishani Maitra and Mary Kate McGowan, eds, Speech and Harm: Controversies Over Free Speech. Oxford University Press.
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Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
Keywords | Objectification,Dehumanisation,Othering,Feminism,Racism,Pornography,Epistemology |
Contacts
Course organiser | Dr Aidan McGlynn
Tel: (0131 6)51 6333
Email: |
Course secretary | Miss Ann-Marie Cowe
Tel: (0131 6)50 3961
Email: |
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