Overview

What is the significance of our gut feelings? In this volume, Munch-Jurisic considers this question through the phenomenon of perpetrator disgust. Across time and cultures, individuals who have committed atrocities have been known to exhibit severe emotional and physical distress during the act of violence or upon recalling it, with symptoms as severe as vomiting and convulsions. Munch-Jurisic explores whether such responses reflect a moral judgment on the part of the perpetrator and asks what conclusions we can draw about the relationship of our gut feelings to human nature, cognition, and moral frameworks.Drawing on a broad range of historical examples of perpetrator disgust and the latest philosophical and scientific research on emotions, Munch-Jurisic argues that gut feelings do not carry a straightforward and transparent intentionality in themselves, nor do they motivate any core, specific response. Instead, she suggests, they are templates that can embody a broad range of values and morals. With this core insight, she proposes a contextual understanding of emotions, by which an agent's environment shapes their available hermeneutic equipment (such as concepts, categories, and names) that an agent relies on to understand their emotions and navigate the world.Grounded in empirical evidence and historical context, Perpetrator Disgust explores intriguing new avenues of inquiry in moral psychology and promises to be of interest to any student or scholar of philosophy, psychology, or sociology whose research considers violence, ethics, or emotions.

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9780197610510

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Reviews

This is my favorite kind of book - it packs a punch with purpose. Munch-Jurisic carefully interrogates a single moment in episodes of gut-wrenching brutality and unmasks tremendous variation in the experience and behaviors of disgust, exploding commonsense views of emotion, morality, and human nature that for decades have masqueraded as science. Be prepared to be simultaneously disturbed by the details, intrigued by their implications, and awed by Munch-Jurisic's skill as a philosopher and story-teller. * Lisa Feldman Barrett, Ph.D., University Distinguished Professor of Psychology, author of How Emotions are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain and Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain * In this deeply insightful book, Munch-Jurisic addresses a charged and contentious aspect of human psychology with skill, sensitivity, and moral seriousness. She masterfully weaves together insights from an array of disciplines, and the argument she builds for her thesis-that the revulsion perpetrators can experience in reaction to their atrocities is not the glimmer of some muffled but irrepressible instinctual morality, but rather a culturally shaped gut feeling that is too easily redirected towards morally destructive ends-is wonderfully thought-provoking and largely convincing. * Daniel Kelly, Purdue University Department of Philosophy * The topic of perpetrator disgust-the tendency for perpetrators to recoil in horror from the atrocities that they have committed-has been a grossly under-researched subject, but one that that is crucial for understanding genocide, dehumanization, and moral psychology more generally. As the first extended scholarly treatment of this phenomenon, Perpetrator Disgust is a landmark accomplishment that will be an indispensable resource for scholars for years and decades to come. * David Livingstone Smith, author of Making Monsters: The Uncanny Power of Dehumanization *

This is my favorite kind of book - it packs a punch with purpose. Munch-Jurisic carefully interrogates a single moment in episodes of gut-wrenching brutality and unmasks tremendous variation in the experience and behaviors of disgust, exploding commonsense views of emotion, morality, and human nature that for decades have masqueraded as science. Be prepared to be simultaneously disturbed by the details, intrigued by their implications, and awed by Munch-Jurisic's skill as a philosopher and story-teller. * Lisa Feldman Barrett, Ph.D., University Distinguished Professor of Psychology, author of How Emotions are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain and Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain * In this deeply insightful book, Munch-Jurisic addresses a charged and contentious aspect of human psychology with skill, sensitivity, and moral seriousness. She masterfully weaves together insights from an array of disciplines, and the argument she builds for her thesis-that the revulsion perpetrators can experience in reaction to their atrocities is not the glimmer of some muffled but irrepressible instinctual morality, but rather a culturally shaped gut feeling that is too easily redirected towards morally destructive ends-is wonderfully thought-provoking and largely convincing. * Daniel Kelly, Purdue University Department of Philosophy * The topic of perpetrator disgust-the tendency for perpetrators to recoil in horror from the atrocities that they have committed-has been a grossly under-researched subject, but one that that is crucial for understanding genocide, dehumanization, and moral psychology more generally. As the first extended scholarly treatment of this phenomenon, Perpetrator Disgust is a landmark accomplishment that will be an indispensable resource for scholars for years and decades to come. * David Livingstone Smith, author of Making Monsters: The Uncanny Power of Dehumanization * Perpetrator Disgust is a groundbreaking book. It is a significant contribution to an understudied phenomenon and should be required reading not only for philosophers of emotion but also for genocide scholars, moral psychologists, and those, like me, who study the nexus between dehumanization and atrocity...It is also clearly written and accessible to the nonspecialist or general reader. Read it! * David Livingstone Smith, Ethics *

Author Information

Ditte Marie Munch-Jurisic is a postdoctoral fellow in philosophy at Emory University and a lecturer in philosophy and minority studies at the University of Copenhagen. Her work focuses on emotions and moral psychology, combining empirical research and philosophical inquiry to reassess contemporary debates on discrimination, bias, and moral injury.

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