Year of Award
2019
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Type
Master of Arts (MA)
Degree Name
Philosophy
Other Degree Name/Area of Focus
Environmental Philosophy; Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Department or School/College
Department of Philosophy
Committee Chair
Deborah Slicer
Commitee Members
Christopher Preston, Soazig Le Bihan, Kathleen Kane
Keywords
genocide, critical animal studies, social death, Claudia Card
Publisher
University of Montana
Subject Categories
Ethics and Political Philosophy | Feminist Philosophy
Abstract
“Genocide” appears commonly in critical animal studies literature and sparsely in philosophy to describe human-caused violence against nonhuman beings. However, such uses of the term have rarely been informed by relevant work in genocide studies, nor otherwise formally substantiated. This thesis explores what is at stake when employing the term and proposes a model for appropriate application to nonhuman contexts. Claudia Card’s notion of genocide as social death allows for the consideration of nonhuman animals as victims of genocide. Social vitality is important to the lives of some nonhuman animals and its forcible diminishment results in social death for those nonhuman groups. Thus, instances of violence that inflict social death among nonhuman animals are genocide. By recognizing that nonhumans are, in fact, rendered victims of genocide through human violence against them, we challenge the anthropocentric bias that is fundamental to all genocidal perpetration.
Recommended Citation
Waldkoenig, Kirstin, "Can Nonhumans Be Victims of Genocide?" (2019). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 11401.
https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/11401
© Copyright 2019 Kirstin Waldkoenig