Hiding from Humanity
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Hiding from Humanity: Disgust, Shame, and the Law (2004) is a book by American philosopher Martha Nussbaum.
It extends Nussbaum's work in moral psychology to probe the arguments for including two emotions—shame and disgust—as legitimate bases for legal judgments. Nussbaum argues that individuals tend to repudiate their bodily imperfection or animality through the projection of fears about contamination. This cognitive response is in itself irrational, because we cannot transcend the animality of our bodies. Noting how projective disgust has wrongly justified group subordination (mainly of women, Jews, and homosexuals), Nussbaum ultimately discards disgust as a reliable basis of judgment.
Turning to shame, Nussbaum argues that shame takes too broad a target, attempting to inculcate humiliation on a scope that is too intrusive and limiting on human freedom. Nussbaum sides with John Stuart Mill in narrowing legal concern to acts that cause a distinct and assignable harm.
In an interview with Reason magazine, Nussbaum elaborated, "Disgust and shame are inherently hierarchical; they set up ranks and orders of human beings. They are also inherently connected with restrictions on liberty in areas of non-harmful conduct. For both of these reasons, I believe, anyone who cherishes the key democratic values of equality and liberty should be deeply suspicious of the appeal to those emotions in the context of law and public policy".
Nussbaum's work was received with wide praise. The Boston Globe called her argument "characteristically lucid" and hailed her as "America's most prominent philosopher of public life". Her reviews in national newspapers and magazines garnered unanimous praise. In academic circles, Stefanie A. Lindquist of Vanderbilt University lauded Nussbaum's analysis as a "remarkably wide ranging and nuanced treatise on the interplay between emotions and law".
A prominent exception was Roger Kimball's review published in the New Criterion, in which he accused Nussbaum of "fabricating" the renewed prevalence of shame and disgust in public discussions and says she intends to "undermine the inherited moral wisdom of millennia". He rebukes her for "contempt for the opinions of ordinary people" and ultimately accuses Nussbaum herself of "hiding from humanity".
Nussbaum has recently drawn on and extended her work on disgust to produce a new analysis of the legal issues regarding sexual orientation and same-sex conduct. Her book From Disgust to Humanity: Sexual Orientation and the Constitution was published by Oxford University Press in 2009, as part of their "Inalienable Rights" series, edited by Geoffrey Stone.
On the cover of at least one edition was Halbakt (Half Length Nude) by Otto Dix.
Contents
Contents Introduction 1 Two Problematic Emotions 13 Emotions and Law 19 Emotions and Political Liberalism 56 Disgust and Our Animal Bodies 71 Disgust and Law 72 Devlin Kass Miller Kahan 75 The Cognitive Content of Disgust 87 The Case of B 189 Humiliation Embarrassment 203 Disgust Guilt Depression Rage 206 Constructive Shame? 211 Shame in Social Life 217 Shaming Citizens? 222 Shame and the Facilitating Environment 223 Dignity and Narcissistic Rage 227
Disgust and Indignation 99 Projective Disgust and Group Subordination 107 Disgust Exclusion Civilization 115 Disgust and the Law 124 Disgust as Offense Disgust as Criterion 125 The HomosexualProvocation Defense 126 Obscenity 134 Sodomy Necrophilia 147 Disgust and Nuisance Law 158 Horrible and Inhuman Homicides 163 Shame and Stigma 172 The Blushing Face 173 Primitive Shame Narcissism and the Golden Age 177 Gay Sex and Animus 250 The Gang Loitering Law 271 Mills Conclusion by Another Route 278 from Shame 280 Shame and Personal Privacy 296 Liberalism 320 Emotions and Forms of Liberalism 340 Notes 351 List of References 389 General Index 401 Index of Case Names 412 Copyright
