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Cruelty is such a ubiquitous and at the same time disturbing phenomenon that we take for granted that we understand what it is, and how it impacts the ways in which we think about our humanity as a moral condition-how we understand our moral significance. Cruelty: A Book About Us offers an accessible interrogation of cruelty and humanity, and, most critically, it provides a groundwork for us to raise questions collectively; it is an invitation for us all to join in the dialogue. Through academic studies, literary works, and' personal stories and observations, this book provokes deeper insights into why cruel acts trouble our usual ways of articulating and addressing wrongness. Mining interdisciplinary sources, it excavates what we may not know we don't know and guides us in conversations about this profoundly evocative and often uneasy subject.
List of contents
Chapter 1: What the Scholars Owe Us.- Chapter 2: Professors of Cruelty: Some Anxieties About Being Us.- Chapter 3: Himmler, Himmler's Canary, and Us.- Chapter 4: What Do We Say About Cruelty? Patterns of Responses to the Questions "What Is Cruelty?".- Chapter 5: I'm a Good Person, Really!.- Chapter 6: Thin Skin and Faith.- Chapter 7: What's the Difference Between a Rutabaga and a Pig?.- Chapter 8: Kaleidoscope Mirrors: Response and Responsiveness.- Chapter 9: The Perfect Sheep.- Chapter 10: A Mistake.- Chapter 11: A Proposal: Learning to Perceive.
About the author
Maggie Schein received her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago's Committee on Social Thought. She is a scholar, author, and educator. She was the Research Director for a humanities lab at Harvard University, served under a Mellon Foundation Grant, is the author of
Los Cantos of the Ouroboros Caves, and has worked as a character assessment analyst for law enforcement and other institutions.
