Dartmouth Events

Wednesday, May 15, 2024

Lidal Dror, Princeton University

4:00-5:30pm
41 Haldeman
Free & Open to the Public

Talk title: "Ignorance of and Indifference to the Deaths of Select Others"

Abstract: "While much concern has rightfully been expressed for Ukrainian civilians suffering as a result of the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War, many have noted that the level of concern expressed for Ukrainians exceeds that expressed for civilians, particularly non-white civilians, who die in other conflicts. This talk attempts to offer an explanation of the disparate concern Westerners have for civilians who die in different wars abroad. I consider two attempts to explain the disparate concern in terms of racism; first a more interpersonal understanding of racism as racist animus, and then a more structural explanation in terms of ‘white ignorance’. I ultimately argue that trying to understand the disparate concern evinced for different civilian causalities primarily in terms of racism is mistaken, and that an adequate explanation of Western attitudes must be grounded on an account of imperialist interests."

As part of our commitment to social justice, the Philosophy Department is developing a 5-year series of public lectures on Race, Gender and Justice, beginning in 2021. See also the Philosophy website.

Funded by the Mark J. Byrne 1985 Fund in Philosophy, which is an endowment established in 1996 to help support the study of philosophy at Dartmouth College; generously cosponsored by the Ethics Institute.