fandomhigh | Practical Philosophy, Tuesday

"From the ancient Greeks all the way to the future of this world," Ender said, wry smile firmly in place, his legs folded underneath him. "My own time saw my people facing an alien species they did not understand, committing an act of destruction against them they came to regret. It has led to a great deal of thinking on the topic of the 'Other', and how we define it."

He reached for his bottle of water. "A philosopher called Demosthenes developed something they call the 'hierarchy of foreignness'," he said. "First, there is the utlänning, the stranger who is recognizably human but from another place on the same world. Second, främling, a stranger recognized as human from another world. Third, raman, the stranger we recognize as human who is of a different species to our own. And finally, varelse, the truly alien, so foreign in their thinking we cannot understand it."

The class didn't need to know Valentine hadn't published her book yet.

He took a sip of his water. "Hence, Demosthenes defines the other by our ease of recognizing something within them that we understand and see in ourselves," he said. "Through such similarities we can find a common language between ourselves. If we do, then both parties can acknowledge each other's 'humanness' - or whatever, less human-centric word you choose to use for it."

And the bottle went back down. "'The difference between raman and varelse is not in the creature judged, but in the creature judging', Demosthenes writes. 'When we declare an alien species to be raman, it does not mean that they have passed a threshold of moral maturity. It means that we have.' It is easy to decide another is not human, that it can only be destroyed or pushed aside. Consciously or unconsciously; after all, when the alien stands at our door with jaws parted and torch lit, it generally does not occur to us to ask why."

Like his humanity had, once upon a time. Ender noticed his voice had grown somewhat louder, and he cautioned it back down into a more even tone, subtle as the difference might have been. "It is very hard to do the opposite: to stop and search for those similarities within the other that allow us to establish a common language, even when we instinctively feel the other is doing a great evil. Yet Demosthenes feels that we only prove ourselves worthy of being called 'human' if we put in this effort. Otherwise we, ourselves, might just as well be the slavering beasts."

Or the angry bugs, as it might be.

"But how to put in such effort? We'll spend the rest of the semester on that," Ender said. "For now, feel free to discuss how you feel about Demosthenes' proposed order. Or speak to anything at all that comes to mind. I have no questions."

This topics was too... specific, for him.

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"But how to put in such effort? We'll spend the rest of the semester on that," Ender said. "For now, feel free to discuss how you feel about Demosthenes' proposed order. Or speak to anything at all that comes to mind. I have no questions."

"In my galaxy, we have been cohabitating with a variety of species for millennia," Ben began, "and moved from judging based on packaging to recognizing the spark inside each being. We call it the Force." He pressed his lips together. "Then we encountered a species from outside our galaxy, beings we couldn't detect through the Force. It was terrifying."

Edited 2024-07-23 14:47 (UTC)

"Did you find a way to communicate?" Ender asked, a touch gentle.

Ben waggled his hand. "Eventually, but not before they'd invaded and murdered several trillion beings."

"Familiar," Ender said, for reasons Ben would get and the rest of the class wouldn't, and sipped his water. "How did you figure it out?"

"Well, I was still very small, but Dad went and conducted negotiations with the living planet they'd grown in the Outer Rim," Ben said in a "what can you do" sort of tone.

Ender's mouth curved. "I'm disappointed I wasn't there for that."

Ben grinned back. "I'm sure it was quite a thing to see."

Liliana frowned. "Where did those words come from?" she asked. "I don't know them."

"They're from an Earth language called Swedish," Ender said. "Utlänning means 'otherlander', främling is a word for a stranger from another country. Raman, 'crude man', and 'varelse' means beast or creature."

"Ah," Liliana said, nodding. "I have not yet come across this language yet."

She added it to her list of languages to ~~cheat~~ learn. "Did this Demosthenes grow up on a plane where there was only one dominant creature type?" Beat. "Species?"

"Until very recently, we knew of only two," Ender said. "Ourselves, and the species we killed when we felt they were too much of a threat to us."

Liliana nodded. "That makes this make more sense," she said. "Were they? A legitimate threat to you? Or did your people not ask 'why'? Did theirs?"

"It started with a misunderstanding, as these things often do," Ender said. "A deadly one. They didn't understand the concept of individual lives mattering. We didn't understand their social hierarchies. They invaded us twice. After that, we decided not to wait until they came back."

"Only to discover they hadn't planned on a third?" Liliana asked, arching a brow.

That was the only way for this all to tie in together.

"Yes," Ender said. "And it took us a long time to discover it."

"In my universe, we have Guild Navigators," Ghanima offered. "They were human -- once. Mutated through the constant exposure to and consumption of Melange on a level that even I could not survive unchanged."

"Both their bodies and minds change in ways that not totally understood outside the very secretive Guild, but it allows them to safely navigate interstellar and galactic space using prescient talents. Without them, our long-range starships would not be able to fold space safely."

"Everything changes, even their language, and their ability to survive outside their tanks. Does your Demosthenes allow for fluidity within this hierarchy? Can främling become varelse, or vice versa?"

"Yes," Ender said. "Depending as much on the one making the judgment, of course, as on the one being judged, if not more so."

He sipped his water. "Choosing not to learn to understand is also a choice."

Practical Philosophy, Tuesday

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