Disgust and Death
Channel: Center for Advanced Study, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Date: 2014-01-21

Colin McGinn
Department of Philosophy, University of Miami

What triggers disgust? Paradoxically, disgust is both primitive and yet infused with civilization and its objects seem heterogeneous and without unifying principle (from corpses to feces to rats to body parts). McGinn suggests that death figures in objects we find disgusting, directly or indirectly, so that symbolism is at work in this most visceral of emotions. But the way death figures is subtle. Skeletons are not disgusting while rotting flesh is. McGinn argues that ultimately it is our incongruous nature as "embodied souls" that lies behind disgust.

The Philosophy Annual Public Lecture

Hosted by: Department of Philosophy

In conjunction with: Beckman Institute, College of Medicine, Department of Anthropology, Department of the Classics, Department of Educational Psychology, Department of English, Department of Entomology, Department of French, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, Department of Media and Cinema Studies, Department of Political Science, Department of Psychology, Department of Religion, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Department of Sociology, Department of Theatre, Gender and Women's Studies, Institute for Genomic Biology, Medical Scholars Program, Neuroscience Program, Program in Comparative and World Literature, Program in Jewish Culture and Society, Program in Science and Technology Studies, School of Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics, Spurlock Museum, Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory, Insect Fear Film Festival, That's Rentertainment

Friday, April 9, 2010
4:00 pm
Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum