The Theology and Religious Ethics Workshop and the Animal Studies Workshop invite you to join us for a joint event:
Wednesday, April 12, 2017
4:45 – 6:00 pm
Swift 106
The ‘Human Prejudice’ and Nonhuman Others presented by Sara-Jo Swiatek, PhD Student, Religious Ethics with a response by David Barr, PhD Candidate, Religious Ethics
Sara-Jo Swiatek offers a critical reading of Bernard Williams’s essay, “The Human Prejudice” (2006). According to Williams, “human being” is an ethical concept that involves loyalty to, or identity with, one’s own species. On his account, “human being” is a perfectly coherent and morally relevant category. The fact that we use “human being” implicitly as an ethical concept, he suggests, merely indicates that there is no need to provide an alternative set of criteria to evaluate creatures one by one. Since humans are the only species that can reflect on and be motivated by species membership, we need not concern ourselves with justifying the human prejudice. In fact, there may be something serious at stake in rejecting it.
While Williams’s essay raises important questions regarding how we conceive of ourselves as a species, affirming species identity and preserving the human prejudice cannot get us out of the problems it is assumed to address. Williams’s approach is limited because he fails to account for the emotional aspects of the so-called human preference and offers us a distorted picture of how we relate to both human and nonhuman animals. The work of moral philosopher Mary Midgley helps us to see that the morality of species identity must be put into context with other human preferences and understood with respect to our capacity to form deep emotional bonds with other social creatures.
David considers how some of the debates in environmental ethics might challenge or support Sara-Jo’s position. Following his response, all are welcome to join the conversation.Workshops are free and open to the public. Food and drink will be provided.
Bernard Williams, “The Human Prejudice” available at: https://uchicago.box.com/