People the world over segment the animal kingdom into species.
When we dehumanise others, we do not simply regard them as non-human. We regard them as less than human. Where does that come from?
Attributions of intrinsic value are intimately bound up with beliefs about moral obligation
we have developed methods to circumvent and neutralise our own horror at the prospect of spilling human blood.
You don’t have to be a monster or a madman to dehumanise others. You just have to be an ordinary human being.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream had no trouble understanding that though Bottom’s head looked like that of a donkey, he was really a human being ‘on the inside’, the donkeyish appearance concealing the human essence.