ABSTRACT
Discrimination is sometimes the product of what the discriminator takes to be a fundamental distinction between classes of people. For example, some religions treat men and women differently – in how they shall dress, in who can serve in the clergy, and in where they should sit during religious events – typically in the belief (whether sound or unsound is not the point, at least not yet) that the gender-based distinction is fundamental, foundational, natural, or constitutive. Those who distinguish between humans and animals for any of a number of reasons and in any of a number of contexts ordinarily understand the distinction between human beings and other creatures to be in some way ontologically or morally foundational. And placing a lesser value in war on the life of an enemy than on a country’s own citizens is typically premised on a belief in a basic distinction between friend and foe, or between citizens and non-citizens.
