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Perpetrator Abhorrence: Disgust as a Stop Sign
Author(s) -
MunchJurišić Ditte Marie
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
metaphilosophy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.475
H-Index - 35
eISSN - 1467-9973
pISSN - 0026-1068
DOI - 10.1111/meta.12082
Subject(s) - disgust , skepticism , psychology , sign (mathematics) , phenomenon , social psychology , normative , analogy , conceptualization , cognitive psychology , epistemology , philosophy , mathematical analysis , mathematics , anger , linguistics
Most contemporary research on disgust can be divided into “disgust advocates” and “disgust skeptics.” The so‐called advocates argue that disgust can have a positive influence on our moral judgment; skeptics warn that it can mislead us toward prejudice and discrimination. This article compares this disagreement to a structurally similar debate in the field of genocide studies concerning the phenomenon of “perpetrator abhorrence.” While some soldiers report having felt strong disgust in the moment of committing or witnessing atrocity, scholars disagree on whether such disgust is moral in nature. These empirical cases provide us with reasons to reconsider the normative features of disgust. Inspired by the conceptualization of disgust in I mmanuel K ant and A urel K olnai, and as an alternative to both the disgust advocates and the skeptics, this article argues that the analogy of a stop sign can better help us define disgust responses.