Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Cosmos The In Lost

Home
Catholic
#Roe42: Abortion, Cognitive Bias & the Problem of Representation

#Roe42: Abortion, Cognitive Bias & the Problem of Representation

Last updated on: January 22, 2015 at 3:07 pm by Artur Rosman

#Roe42: Abortion, Cognitive Bias & the Problem of Representation 2015-01-22T15:07:49-07:00 Artur Rosman

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

She liked shouting. But did that make her any easier to hear?

The problem of representation is one of the key issues of modern philosophy. It ranges all the way from the question of what can be represented all the way to what by definition cannot be represented. In fact, Descartes’ search for ways to represent clearly and distinctly launched the modern philosophical project. Yet, by the 20th century Descartes’ own French philosophical tradition was wholesale denigrating visual representation.

Don’t look here.

I’m in the process of interviewing David Griffith, the author of A Good War is Hard to Find. His book uses the fiction of Flannery O’Connor to critique the representations of Abu Ghraib, recent American wars, and related issues of depicting and unmasking violence.

Yet, what might this Catholic mid-century writer–whose monumental work ironically obscures the visibility of contemporary writers–have to do with all this fairly mundane stuff of our headlines? In response David Griffith asks the following questions:

Will Christians in America see the images of prison abuse at Abu Ghraib as O’Connor would, as evidence of spiritual struggle within all human beings, or as the Professor of English would, as a deviant fantasy dreamed up by desperate characters? What is the cost of treating these events as the result of abnormal psychology? At what cost do we demand to see ourselves as redeemers–the judgers of Good and Evil?

It’s hard not to look at some things.

I decided to run an experiment in representation and cognitive bias when I first noticed that the #Roe42 hashtag was trending today. On the 42nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade the social media (and what I’ve seen on television) has overwhelmingly put a happy face on the whole matter. The posts mostly feature younger white women with smiling faces who look like they are enjoying their financial success. Even the statistics, meant to scare you into belief by multiplying scary counterfactuals, have a decidedly sunny disposition to them with their pastel colors. There are, as usual, abstracts slogans about freedom and economic security.

In short, all these things represent the Roe v. Wade decision as redemptive. Heck, even the Republicans have doubts about rocking the boat on this issue, because they are more worried about looking like villains rather than redeemers.

When we take all of these things into consideration, two things are decidedly missing:

On the left: frank representation of the whole violent process of abortion.

On the right: frank representation of how abortion is related to a whole set of other issues, because these other issues are related to the sacrosanct institution of the market.

Is it possible to whisper, not yell, about controversial issues?

But are visual representations powerful enough to change anything? Does yelling louder get anything done? Would putting mangled children up for everyone to see change anything? Or would it only make people turn away in disgust at a manifestations of abnormal psychology? Would tying abortion to wider societal concerns make everyone see a bigger pattern, or only more of the same old mess?

This ambivalence of representation is something David Griffiths highlights with the epigraph he chose for A Good War is Hard to Find. It comes from the last story, “The Displaced Person,” in Flannery’s collection, A Good Man is Hard to Find:

Mrs. Shortley recalled a newsreel she had seen once of a small room piled high with bodies of dead naked people all in a heap, their arms and legs tangled together, a head thrust in here, a head there, a foot, a knee, a part that should have been covered up sticking out, a hand raised clutching nothing. Before you could realize that it was real and take it into your head, the picture changed and a hollow-sounding voice was saying, “Time marches on!”

What is the right approach to highlighting the human waste at the bottom of this debate? Or are the cognitive biases too strong? Future generations will evaluate our present discourse with criteria we know nothing about.

All aboard? The problem will not sail away.

For an earlier discussion of abortion within its historical context see my “Abortion, Natural Law, and Antisemitism?“

Previous Post

January 21, 2015

How Did Disappearing Middle Eastern Religions Survive in the First Place?

Next Post

January 25, 2015 St. Socrates: Philosophy's Permanent Ties to Theology

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category #WhyRemainCatholic Abortion Advent Anti-Catholicism Arts Atheism Beauty Benedict XVI Bible Book Review Catholic Cinema Comedy Cosmos: A Space-Time Odyssey Czesław Miłosz Dariusz Karłowicz Devil Easter Eastern Orthodoxy Economics Environment Family Famous Atheists Who Weren't Atheists Guest Post Hans Urs von Balthasar HHS Mandate History Imagination Interview Islam Jean-Luc Marion John Paul II Judaism Just War Lent Literature Little Sisters of the Poor Liturgy Martyrdom Music News Paganism Patristics Phenomenology Philosophy Pierre Hadot Poetry Poland Pop Culture Pope Francis Poverty Prayer Protestantism Rabelais Race Remi Brague Rene Girard Russia Sam Rocha Science & Religion SCOTUS Secularization Sexual Abuse Sexuality Silence Solidarity Stratford Caldecott Synod14 Terrorism Top 10 Uncategorized Walker Percy War Weakened Edition World War II World Youth Day WYD Krakow

Select a Month July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What did God tell Moses from the burning bush?

Select your answer to see how you score.

That he would be king of Israel That he would lead Israel out of Egypt That he would become Pharaoh That he would build the temple