Philosophy
Sat in on a colleagues class yesterday and they were working on a piece by psychologist David Moshman called "Us and Them: Identity and Genocide" where Moshman argues that the traditional definition of genocide is too broad in that it only looks at the extreme of mass murder.
Genocide, he argues, is not necessarily violent, that is, it is not necessarily a crime against the body. Rather, it should be understood as a crime against identity. Genocide is the attempt to eliminate a cultural identity and one way to do it is to kill everyone who is so identified, but there are also non-violent genocides which aim to strip the identity from those who possess it. The example here is the boarding schools to which Native Americans were sent by the American government in order to "civilize" them, to remove their "savage" natures and thereby eliminate native culture, language, and everything associated with it. This was a crime against identity, he argues, and should be considered genocide, despite being non-violent.
Is this move warranted? Are the grouping of these acts legitimately called genocide or does it water down the concept? What work does the notion of genocide do for us practically and does this move bolster or harm it?
- The Cultural Meaning Of Hitler
Today would be Adolf Hitler's 122nd birthday. Author of Mein Kampf and architect of genocide, his name is used to imply extreme evil, but all too often that is equivalent to "someone who doesn't agree with me." It seems as if the power is diminished...
- Is Crime Healthy?
I've been working through Emile Durkheim's classic The Rules of Sociological Method and in one section he works to draw a line between types of acts that are normal and those that are pathological. I don't want to discuss the criterion, but...
- What Is A Terrorist?
I've always hated the cliche, "It's just a matter of semantics." We say that, of course, when we mean that a discussion is trivial worrying about defnitions instead of content, but semantics, the study of meaning, is quite difficult and important....
- Matters Of Semantics
One of my pet peeves is the saying "it's just a matter of semantics" which is used to say that something is a completely trivial matter. Fact is, semantics is anything but trivial. The study of language can be roughly divided into three parts: syntax...
- Raphal Lemkin, Genocide And Darfur
Posted by confused, maybe not , 8/1/07 Dr. RAPHAEL LEMKIN Dr. Raphael Lemkin was horrified by the Armenian genocide, and was virtually broken when his family was murdered in Nazi concentration camps. But Dr. Lemkin?s concern for human life resurrected...
Philosophy
What Is Genocide?
Sat in on a colleagues class yesterday and they were working on a piece by psychologist David Moshman called "Us and Them: Identity and Genocide" where Moshman argues that the traditional definition of genocide is too broad in that it only looks at the extreme of mass murder.
Genocide, he argues, is not necessarily violent, that is, it is not necessarily a crime against the body. Rather, it should be understood as a crime against identity. Genocide is the attempt to eliminate a cultural identity and one way to do it is to kill everyone who is so identified, but there are also non-violent genocides which aim to strip the identity from those who possess it. The example here is the boarding schools to which Native Americans were sent by the American government in order to "civilize" them, to remove their "savage" natures and thereby eliminate native culture, language, and everything associated with it. This was a crime against identity, he argues, and should be considered genocide, despite being non-violent.
Is this move warranted? Are the grouping of these acts legitimately called genocide or does it water down the concept? What work does the notion of genocide do for us practically and does this move bolster or harm it?
- The Cultural Meaning Of Hitler
Today would be Adolf Hitler's 122nd birthday. Author of Mein Kampf and architect of genocide, his name is used to imply extreme evil, but all too often that is equivalent to "someone who doesn't agree with me." It seems as if the power is diminished...
- Is Crime Healthy?
I've been working through Emile Durkheim's classic The Rules of Sociological Method and in one section he works to draw a line between types of acts that are normal and those that are pathological. I don't want to discuss the criterion, but...
- What Is A Terrorist?
I've always hated the cliche, "It's just a matter of semantics." We say that, of course, when we mean that a discussion is trivial worrying about defnitions instead of content, but semantics, the study of meaning, is quite difficult and important....
- Matters Of Semantics
One of my pet peeves is the saying "it's just a matter of semantics" which is used to say that something is a completely trivial matter. Fact is, semantics is anything but trivial. The study of language can be roughly divided into three parts: syntax...
- Raphal Lemkin, Genocide And Darfur
Posted by confused, maybe not , 8/1/07 Dr. RAPHAEL LEMKIN Dr. Raphael Lemkin was horrified by the Armenian genocide, and was virtually broken when his family was murdered in Nazi concentration camps. But Dr. Lemkin?s concern for human life resurrected...