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fandomhigh2024-07-23 03:14 pm
endsthegame) wrote in fandomhigh2024-07-23 03:14 pm
Entry tags:
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.
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.
Re: Talk.