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The wisdom of repugnance is a phrase describing the notion that an intuitive (or "deep-seated") negative response to a thing (e.g. an idea or practice) should be interpreted as evidence that the thing is harmful or evil. Furthermore, it refers to the notion that wisdom may manifest itself as feelings of disgust towards unwise things, though these feelings may not be immediately explicable through reason. Intuition has many but close meanings across many cultures, including: Quick and ready insight seemingly independent of previous experiences and empirical knowledge Immediate apprehension or cognition Knowledge or conviction gained immediately and without detailed consideration The power or faculty of attaining knowledge or cognition immediately without thought and inference. ...
Evil is a term describing that which is regarded as morally bad, intrinsically corrupt, wantonly destructive, inhumane, or wicked. ...
Origin and usage The term was coined in 1997 by Leon Kass, chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics, in an eponymous chapter of his book Life, Liberty, and the Defense of Dignity. In the chapter, Kass stated that disgust was not an argument per se, but went on to say that "in crucial cases...repugnance is the emotional expression of deep wisdom, beyond reason's power fully to articulate it." 1997 (MCMXCVII) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
The neutrality of this article is disputed. ...
A controversial entity, created by George W. Bush, whose purpose is to regulate (or, at least, tell the president how he ought to regulate) biotechnology and biomedical research. ...
The term remains largely confined to discussions of bioethics, and is somewhat related to the term "yuck factor". However, unlike the latter, it is used almost exclusively by those who accept its underlying premise; i.e., that repugnance does, in fact, indicate wisdom. It is thus often viewed as loaded language, and is primarily used by certain bioconservatives to justify their position. Bioethics is the ethics of biological science and medicine. ...
A language construct, such as a word or a question, is said to be loaded if it carries meaning or implications beyond its strict definition (its denotation). ...
Bioconservatism is a stance of hesitancy about biotechnological development especially if it is perceived to threaten a social order. ...
The wisdom of repugnance is often used to justify so-called "knee-jerk" negative reactions to cloning (particularly of humans), genetic engineering, and other contentious subjects. One who adheres to this thesis may consider it unnecessary ("in crucial cases") to examine an issue logically, or to debate dissenting arguments. Cloning is the process of creating an identical copy of an original. ...
Human cloning is the creation of a genetically identical copy of an existing, or previously existing human or growing cloned tissue from that individual. ...
An iconic image of genetic engineering; this 1986 autoluminograph of a glowing transgenic tobacco plant bearing the luciferase gene of the firefly strikingly demonstrates the power and potential of genetic manipulation. ...
The term has since migrated to other controversies, such as same-sex marriage, abortion, pornography, and cannabis rescheduling. In all cases, it expresses the view that one's "gut reaction" is sufficient to discredit a sufficiently contentious issue. Same-sex marriage is marriage between individuals who are of the same legal or biological sex. ...
Pavonazzeto marble sculpture, see Erotic art in Pompeii Pornography (from Greek ποÏνογÏαφία pornographia — literally writing about or drawings of prostitutes) (also informally referred to as porn or porno) is the representation of the human body or human sexual behaviour with the goal of sexual arousal, similar to, but distinct from, erotica. ...
Cannabis rescheduling, or cannabis reclassification, refers to efforts to transfer cannabis to a different category of controlled substances or remove it from control altogether. ...
Criticism Mainstream science concedes that disgust serves an evolutionary purpose—to prevent, for instance, biologically hazardous activities like incest, cannibalism, and coprophagia. However, social psychologists question whether these instincts, once removed from the contexts in which they were originally acquired, retain any moral or logical value. Jonathan Haidt called these beliefs "moral dumbfounding", since they prohibited a certain behavior, but could not be rationalized. A speculatively rooted phylogenetic tree of all living things, based on rRNA gene data, showing the separation of the three domains, bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes, as described initially by Carl Woese. ...
Incest is sexual activity or marriage between very close family members. ...
Cannibalism in Brazil in 1557 as described by Hans Staden. ...
Coprophagia is the consumption of feces, from the Greek copros (feces) and phagein (eat). ...
The wisdom of repugnance has been widely criticized, both for its appeal to emotion and for an underlying premise which seems to reject rationalism. Rationalism, also known as the rationalist movement, is a philosophical doctrine that asserts that the truth can best be discovered by reason and factual analysis, rather than faith, dogma or religious teaching. ...
On one level, critics such as Martha Nussbaum specifically oppose the concept of a disgust-based morality. Nussbaum notes that disgust has been used throughout history as a justification for persecution. At various times, antisemitism, sexism, and homophobia have been driven by popular revulsion. Martha Nussbaum Martha Nussbaum (born Martha Craven on May 6, 1947) is an American philosopher, with a particular interest in ancient philosophy, law and ethics. ...
The Eternal Jew: 1937 German poster. ...
The sign of the headquarters of the National Association Opposed To Woman Suffrage Sexism is commonly considered to be discrimination against people based on their sex rather than their individual merits, but can also refer to any and all differentiations based on sex. ...
The term homophobia literally means an irrational fear of or contempt for homosexuality or homosexuals. It is derivable from the words homosexual and phobia (meaning panic fear in Greek). ...
Other critics base their criticism on a broader defense of rationalism. Stephen J. Gould, in his 1997 book Full House, remarked that "our prejudices often overwhelm our limited information. [They] are so venerable, so reflexive, so much a part of our second nature, that we never stop to recognize their status as social decisions with radical alternatives - and we view them instead as given and obvious truths." Rationalism, also known as the rationalist movement, is a philosophical doctrine that asserts that the truth can best be discovered by reason and factual analysis, rather than faith, dogma or religious teaching. ...
Stephen Jay Gould Stephen Jay Gould (September 10, 1941 – May 20, 2002) was a New York-born American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science. ...
Most critics of Kass contend that he has committed the naturalistic fallacy, and that his thesis is pseudoscientific and irrationalistic, due to its deference to emotion over reason. His contention has also been criticized as unfalsifiable, since it does not specifically describe what constitutes a "crucial case", nor why peoples' reactions should differ when confronted by the same issue. Because of Kass' close ties to conservative politicians, and in light of his personal opposition to feminism, gay rights, abortion, and other issues, the Wisdom of Repugnance has been criticized as an attempt to politicize science, and justify irrational ideological objections to scientific research. George E. Moore The naturalistic fallacy is an alleged logical fallacy, identified by British philosopher G.E. Moore in Principia Ethica (1903), which Moore stated was committed whenever a philosopher attempts to prove a claim about ethics by appealing to a definition of the term good in terms of one...
Phrenology is seen today as a classic example of pseudoscience. ...
The philosophical movements of irrationalism and aestheticism were a cultural reaction against positivism that took place during the early twentieth century. ...
Falsifiability is an important concept in the philosophy of science that amounts to the principle that a proposition or theory cannot be scientific if it does not admit the possibility of being shown false. ...
Feminism is a diverse collection of social theories, political movements, and moral philosophies, largely motivated by or concerning the experiences of women, especially in terms of their social, political, and economic situation. ...
The gay rights movement is a collection of loosely aligned civil rights groups, human rights groups, support groups and political activists seeking acceptance, tolerance and equality for non-heterosexual, (homosexual, bisexual), and transgender people - despite the fact that it is typically referred to as the gay rights movement, members also...
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