University of Twente Philosophy Lectures 2024-2025
20 March 2025, 14:30-16:00, LA 2518 (online talk)
(Reception to follow, hosted by Ideefiks, in LA 2507)
Sara Heinämaa
Professor of Philosophy
University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Title: Being Disgusted by Hate Speech: A Phenomenological-Philosophical Analysis
Abstract: The talk focuses on hate speech as a complex phenomenon with intentional-temporal structures and pre-intentional depths. By demonstrating that a specific amorphous form of hatred lies at the core of hate speech, it questions the received view according to which hate speech is motivated by prejudices. Amorphous hatred shares three features with basic hatred: focus on evil, interest in destruction and temporal permanence. It differs from basic hatred, however, in operating independently of provocation and without internal limits. On this basis, the paper further argues that the emotion of disgust is needed for the identification of the disvalue of hate speech.
Bio: Sara Heinämaa is a professor of philosophy in the Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy at the University of Jyväskylä, and a senior lecturer in the Department of Philosophy, History, Culture and Art Studies at the University of Helsinki. She is the author of the book Toward a Phenomenology of Sexual Difference: Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, Beauvoir (2004), as well as the author of numerous articles and co-editor of numerous volumes.
