The Unthinkable" in Ethics, History and Philosophical Anthropology: A Pragmatic-Transcendental View"

What we find ‘unthinkable’ is not seriously considered as an ethical option in our thought and deliberation; it is ruled out from the outset.Combining a broadly pragmatist approach with a Kantian-inspired transcendental strategy, Sami Pihlström distinguishes between what is considered ‘unthinkable’ and what is merely ethically wrong.Pihlström demonstrates how different issues concerning the unthinkable vs the thinkable, ranging from the proper ethical response to the Holocaust to philosophical considerations of monstrous characters familiar in gothic fiction, may challenge the categories we use to structure the world.In particular, he makes the case that it is unthinkable for us to reject the kind of ‘human exceptionalism’ that attributes an ineliminable dignity or preciousness to human beings.Chapters also explore the complex relationship between our responses to human suffering and the suffering of non-human animals, together with questions concerning the philosophy of war and pacifi