What oppression does to people

Research in Holocaust and genocide studies, on human rights violations, and on transitional justice is interdisciplinary. Philosophers make crucial contributions to these fields, and this is certainly the case with the feminist philosopher Claudia Card (1940-2015). The new issue of the journal Metaphilosophy discusses her work on evil, on the concept of social death, on hate crimes, and on the problems of oppression.

Senior Researcher Robin May Schott contributes with an article on “Misplaced Gratitude and the Ethics of Oppression.” In it, she argues that misplaced gratitude is central for Card’s work in developing an ethics of oppression. Only when one catches site of what oppression does to people can one understand how gratitude may not be a moral virtue, but may be a distorted moral response to surviving abuse.