‘The world found nothing sacred in the abstract nakedness of being human.’ On (not) seeing others as human.

From Hannah Arendt’s bitter assessment of the impotence of human rights to today’s despair at the intensity of group-based hatreds, it is hard to feel much confidence in the notion of a common humanity. That lack of confidence is reinforced by centuries in which people proclaimed that all men are born equal but found this compatible, not only with the subordination of women, but with the enslavement and colonisation of millions of both women and men.

In this lecture, Professor Anne Phillips, Emeritus Professor at the London School of Economics, explores what we can nonetheless retrieve from the notion that all of us are human.

This event is chaired by Professor Jonathan Wolff, Alfred Landecker Professor of Values and Public Policy, Blavatnik School of Government, with expert comments from Lior Erez, Alfred Landecker Postdoctoral Fellow, Blavatnik School of Government and Zofia Stemplowska, Professor of Political Theory, Department of Politics and International Relations.

The lecture is followed by a drinks reception.