In this 75th episode of Philosophy Bakes Bread Eric Thomas Weber and Anthony Cashio interview Monica McCarthy, host of the Happier Hour podcast, on the theme “All Philosophy’s a Stage.”
Monica is a thespian, a playwright, the founder of Cheshire Parlour, and the creator and host of “The Happier Hour” podcast. Monica has acted on Broadway and in television programs, film, advertisements, including an appearance on the show Six Feet Under, for example, which was a great show. Very impressive. We connected with Monica especially in relation to her work on The Happier Hour podcast, which her Website describes as “equal parts philosophy and self-help (with a dash of humor thrown in for taste).”
Listen for our “You Tell Me!” questions and for some jokes in one of our concluding segments, called “Philosophunnies.” Reach out to us on Facebook @PhilosophyBakesBread and on Twitter @PhilosophyBB; email us at philosophybakesbread@gmail.com; or call and record a voicemail that we play on the show, at 859.257.1849. Philosophy Bakes Bread is a production of the Society of Philosophers in America (SOPHIA). Check us out online at PhilosophyBakesBread.com and check out SOPHIA at PhilosophersInAmerica.com.
In this 66th episode of the Philosophy Bakes Bread radio show and podcast, Eric Thomas Weber and Anthony Cashio had the pleasure to talk with self-taught philosopher John Altmann (a.k.a. Adrian Alba), who has been engaging in independent philosophical scholarship since 2010. We talk with John about “Disability and Popular Culture.”
John is a regular contributor to the Popular Culture and Philosophy book series. He is a member of the European Network of Japanese Philosophy. He is also a field editor for the Public Philosophy Journal. John is an active public thinker also in his writings on Facebook and Twitter, on the latter of which he is known as @Iron_Intellect. John published a powerful piece in The New York Times, called “I Don’t Want to Be Inspiring,” which was about disability and the ways in which people will often refer to persons with disabilities as being “so inspiring!”
Eric and Anthony both had the chance to meet John at the 2018 gathering of the Public Philosophy Network in Boulder, Colorado this past February, where John gave a powerful paper about the profession of philosophy, called “The Disabled Can Speak: Socratic Midwifery as a Means of Resisting Epistemic Violence.” In addition to that well received paper, John has also written for volumes such as Dracula and Philosophy, The European Journal of Japanese Philosophy, Deadpool and Philosophy, Hippo Reads, and the Blog of the American Philosophical Association, where he wrote about Charlottesville.
Listen for our “You Tell Me!” questions and for some jokes in one of our concluding segments, called “Philosophunnies.” Reach out to us on Facebook @PhilosophyBakesBread and on Twitter @PhilosophyBB; email us at philosophybakesbread@gmail.com; or call and record a voicemail that we play on the show, at 859.257.1849. Philosophy Bakes Bread is a production of the Society of Philosophers in America (SOPHIA). Check us out online at PhilosophyBakesBread.com and check out SOPHIA at PhilosophersInAmerica.com.
Anthony Cashio, “Liberating the Liberal Arts: Encouraging Philosophical Engagement Outside of the Classroom,” on our 2018 SOPHIA panel at the Public Philosophy Network conference in Boulder, CO.
Theodor Seuss Geisel, known simply as Dr. Seuss, remains one of the most widely beloved children’s authors of all time. Yet not many know that his contributions consisted of far more than fun or educational bedtime stories. During World War II, Seuss drew many cartoon editorials targeting the Germans and the Japanese. One pervasive theme throughout these cartoons was the display of “our enemies” as animals. Seuss often illustrated the Germans as alligators, piranhas, sea monsters, dogs, and snakes; the Japanese were drawn as monkeys doing Hitler’s bidding, or as sly cats infiltrating the United States.[1] In other words, our enemies were subhuman. This kind of sentiment permeated our culture at the time. In 1942, an editorial published in the Los Angeles Times argued in favor of the forced internment of American citizens of Japanese ancestry, stating that “a viper is nonetheless a viper wherever the egg is hatched — so a Japanese-American, born of Japanese parents — grows up to be a Japanese, not an American.”[2]
Photo credit: colorado.gov.
The tendency to describe “enemies” as animals is part of the process of dehumanization. According to social ethicist Herbert Kelman, in order to understand how dehumanization functions, it is important to first “ask what it means to perceive another person as fully human, in the sense of being included in the moral compact that governs human relationships” (Kelman, 48).[3] Kelman notes that in order to perceive others as full members of our moral community, it is necessary to recognize them both as autonomous individuals who are “capable of making choices, and entitled to live his own life on the basis of his own goals and values” (Kelman, 48) and also as “part of an interconnected network of individuals who care for each other, who recognize each other’s individuality, and who respect each other’s rights” (Kelman, 48-49). In this sense, dehumanizing another person isn’t about literally denying their humanity (perpetrators of dehumanization would likely still view their victims as members of the species Homo sapiens); it is about denying their moral significance.
In this paper, I want to explore a more interdisciplinary approach to studying the problem of dehumanization. While existing literature on this issue typically focuses on the psychology of dehumanization, and the historical acts of violence often correlated with it, I am further interested in what ways philosophy can be used to combat the human tendency to rationalize causing suffering to others through the removal of their moral worth. More specifically, I want to explore how the ethical writings of Immanuel Kant, Soren Kierkegaard, and Emmanuel Levinas can help us re-humanize those who have been dehumanized.
From NPR, by photographer Ernest Withers, March 28, 1968.
A Brief Overview of Dehumanization
Immanuel Kant, who we shall discuss below, made it a cornerstone of his ethical imperative to respect all rational creatures. We are not permitted, Kant tells us, to treat rational, autonomous agents as mere instruments for our own ends. Because human beings can set their own end in accordance with the moral law, human nature commands respect. We are to treat all humans not as mere instruments, but as ends in themselves.
And yet, even Kant did not follow his own moral imperatives as well as he should have. He argued that women were incapable of acting according to rational moral principles; that when they did act in accordance with the moral law, it was solely due to aesthetic reasons (because “the wicked… is ugly… nothing of duty, nothing of compulsion, nothing of obligation!). Because Kant associated moral value and worth with the capacity for rationality, women’s alleged compromised capacity for rational agency entailed that their moral status is equally compromised. Women only have access to full moral worth via their relationship to the men in their lives (fathers or husbands), and, in marriage, men are to control their wives and tell her “what [her] will is.”[4] In addition to his attitude against women, Kant also harbored incredibly racist views. He argued that Native Americans were not capable of being educated, and that persons of African descent were only capable of being educated as servants or slaves.
Listen for our “You Tell Me!” questions and for some jokes in one of our concluding segments, called “Philosophunnies.” Reach out to us on Facebook @PhilosophyBakesBread and on Twitter @PhilosophyBB; email us at philosophybakesbread@gmail.com; or call and record a voicemail that we play on the show, at 859.257.1849. Philosophy Bakes Bread is a production of the Society of Philosophers in America (SOPHIA). Check us out online at PhilosophyBakesBread.com and check out SOPHIA at PhilosophersInAmerica.com.
In this episode, Eric Weber mentions that people from 67 countries have downloaded episodes of Philosophy Bakes Bread. That was true at the time of recording this episode. As of the release of this episode in our podcast that number has risen to 79.
You Tell Me!
For our future “You Tell Me!” segments, Drs. Shook and Auxier proposed the following question in this episode, for which we invite your feedback:
“What do you think we ought to be trying to do to make America better? What do we need to be doing that we could be doing better?
“Are you content to ride the crest of a high civilization and do nothing whatsoever to pass that wave on to the next generation and the generation after that?”
In this twenty-eighth episode of the Philosophy Bakes Bread radio show and podcast, co-hosts Dr. Eric Thomas Weber and Dr. Anthony Cashio interview Dr. Andrea Christelle, co-founder of the Sedona Philosophy Experience, on the topic of “philosophy in nature.”
According to their Web site, the Sedona Philosophy Experience “was conceived by four university professors who had the crazy idea to bring their love of philosophy and nature to the hiking public in a completely new way. SPEX offers philosopher-led hikes, tours, and retreats among the majestic red rocks of Sedona. Participants are encouraged to discuss and compare opinions on life’s big questions. We are not here to tell you what to think but to stimulate conversation and thought. No experience is necessary–just a natural curiosity about the wonders of life.”
Listen for our “You Tell Me!” questions and for some jokes in one of our concluding segments, called “Philosophunnies.” Reach out to us on Facebook @PhilosophyBakesBread and on Twitter @PhilosophyBB; email us at philosophybakesbread@gmail.com; or call and record a voicemail that we play on the show, at 859.257.1849. Philosophy Bakes Bread is a production of the Society of Philosophers in America (SOPHIA). Check us out online at PhilosophyBakesBread.com and check out SOPHIA at PhilosophersInAmerica.com.
For our future “You Tell Me!” segments, Dr. Christelle proposed the following questions in this episode, for which we invite your feedback: “How can philosophy help us to restore a healthy democracy in the United States?”
