Aporophobia - by Adela Cortina

About the Book

"In a world built on the political, economic and social contract, the poor seem to break the rules of give and take. As a result, there is a growing tendency to exclude them. The problem is not one of xenophobia, since the enthusiastic reception of foreign tourists contrasts with the rejection of refugees and immigrants. We're talking about aporophobia, rejection of the poor. The poor person is a nuisance, even within one's own family. Aporophobia is a daily attack on the dignity and well-being of people and democracy. It also has a universal reach: all human beings are aporophobes, and this has its cerebral and social roots that can and should be modified if we are to take seriously the key ethical issues of a democratic society that aims to be fair. In this book Adela Cortina exposes one of the most deep-rooted and overlooked moral conflicts of our time, not only to give it a name but also to force us to recognise it and to provide us with the tools to face a reality very much our own"--

Book Synopsis

Why "aporophobia"--rejection of the poor--is one of the most serious problems facing the world today, and how we can fight it

In this revelatory book, acclaimed political philosopher Adela Cortina makes an unprecedented assertion: the biggest problem facing the world today is the rejection of poor people. Because we can't recognize something we can't name, she proposes the term "aporophobia" for the pervasive exclusion, stigmatization, and humiliation of the poor, which cuts across xenophobia, racism, antisemitism, and other prejudices. Passionate and powerful, Aporophobia examines where this nearly invisible daily attack on poor people comes from, why it is so harmful, and how we can fight it.

Aporophobia traces this universal prejudice's neurological and social origins and its wide-ranging, pernicious consequences, from unnoticed hate crimes to aporophobia's threat to democracy. It sheds new light on today's rampant anti-immigrant feeling, which Cortina argues is better understood as aporophobia than xenophobia. We reject migrants not because of their origin, race, or ethnicity but because they seem to bring problems while offering nothing of value. And this is unforgivable in societies that enshrine economic exchange as the supreme value while forgetting that we can't create communities worth living in without dignity, generosity, and compassion for all. Yet there is hope, and Cortina explains how we can overcome the moral, social, and political disaster of aporophobia through education and democratic institutions, and how poverty itself can be eradicated if we choose.

In a world of migrant crises and economic inequality, Aporophobia is essential for understanding and confronting one of the most serious problems of the twenty-first century.

Review Quotes

"Cortina has written a significant work of social philosophy that deserves close attention in the Anglophone world. Aporophobia is a provocative book that will stimulate discussion, argument and investigation."---Nick Haslam, The Conversation

About the Author

Adela Cortina is professor emerita of ethics and political philosophy at the University of Valencia in Spain, and the author of many books, including Cosmopolitan Ethics and For an Ethics of Consumption.