Living with the other and living with ourselves: the idea of a common humanity
Dr Adrian Skilbeck (University of Winchester)

16:00-17:30
Presented online via Zoom
Meeting: https://hope.zoom.us/j/84186093447?pwd=UXQ3SHBGRjBpUnp4NjJFR…
(Meeting ID: 841 8609 3447, Password: 677564)

In his 1958 lecture on education, ‘Learning to be Human’, John MacMurray spoke of the task of education as proceeding from the need to develop an understanding of living together based on the idea of a common humanity, not particular identities. Others, such as Raimond Gaita in his book A Common Humanity (2000), have sought to draw far-reaching lessons from an analysis of racism that sees its denial of the full humanity of others as depending upon deep-seated distinctions between ‘us’ and ‘them’, echoed in Stanley Cavell’s idea of ‘soul-blindness’. For Gaita, this has profound implications not only for what it means to live in relation to the other but what it means to live with oneself. However, in recent years (Manne, 2014), the idea of an underlying shared, universal humanity has come to be seen as lacking explanatory force when considered in the light of a history of colonialism, the misogynistic treatment of women and past as well as contemporary atrocities. In addressing these criticisms, I will seek to defend an idea of common humanity and argue that in learning how to live with others, we learn how to live with ourselves and learn how to be human.

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