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Genocide and Social Death

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2020

Claudia Card
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Abstract

Social death, central to the evil of genocide (whether the genocide is homicidal or primarily cultural), distinguishes genocide from other mass murders. Loss of social vitality is loss of identity and thereby of meaning for one's existence. Seeing social death at the center of genocide takes our focus off body counts and loss of individual talents, directing us instead to mourn losses of relationships that create community and give meaning to the development of talents.

Type
Research Article
Information
Hypatia , Volume 18 , Issue 1: Special Issue: Feminist Philosophy and the Problem of Evil , Winter 2003 , pp. 63 - 79
Copyright
Copyright © 2003 by Hypatia, Inc.

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