Perpetrator Disgust The Moral Limits of Gut Feelings

by Munch-Jurisic, Ditte Marie

• ISBN13: 9780197610510
• ISBN10: 019761051X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2022-11-25
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

What is the significance of our gut feelings? In this volume, Munch-Jurisic considers this question through the phenomenon of perpetrator disgust. Across time and cultures, individuals who have committed atrocities have been known to exhibit severe emotional and physical distress during the act of violence or upon recalling it, with symptoms as severe as vomiting and convulsions. Munch-Jurisic explores whether such responses reflect a moral judgment on the part of the perpetrator and asks what conclusions we can draw about the relationship of our gut feelings to human nature, cognition, and moral frameworks.

Drawing on a broad range of historical examples of perpetrator disgust and the latest philosophical and scientific research on emotions, Munch-Jurisic argues that gut feelings do not carry a straightforward and transparent intentionality in themselves, nor do they motivate any core, specific response. Instead, she suggests, they are templates that can embody a broad range of values and morals. With this core insight, she proposes a contextual understanding of emotions, by which an agent's environment shapes their available hermeneutic equipment (such as concepts, categories, and names) that an agent relies on to understand their emotions and navigate the world.

Grounded in empirical evidence and historical context, Perpetrator Disgust explores intriguing new avenues of inquiry in moral psychology and promises to be of interest to any student or scholar of philosophy, psychology, or sociology whose research considers violence, ethics, or emotions.

Author Biography

Ditte Marie Munch-Jurisic is a postdoctoral fellow in philosophy at Emory University and a lecturer in philosophy and minority studies at the University of Copenhagen. Her work focuses on emotions and moral psychology, combining empirical research and philosophical inquiry to reassess contemporary debates on discrimination, bias, and moral injury.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. Why study perpetrators?
2. The problem of perpetrator testimonies
3. The problem of conceptualizing feelings
4. Interpretive Frameworks

Chapter 1: The moral view of perpetrator disgust

1. From animal pity to self-pity
2. The wisdom of repugnance

Chapter 2: The non-moral view of perpetrator disgust

1. Disgust skeptics
2. The Limits of Empathic Distress
3. The moral deficit of empathy
4. Aesthetic Revulsion

Chapter 3: The destructive view of perpetrator disgust

1. Monstrous pity
2. Habituation interpretations of perpetrator disgust
3. The destructive view of perpetrator disgust
4. Perpetrator disgust years after the fact

Chapter 4: The moral limits of gut feelings

1. Understanding gut feelings
2. The contextual view of emotions and affect
3. Applying the contextual lens

Concluding remarks
Acknowledgements
References