Hard Feelings

The Moral Psychology of Contempt

Macalester Bell

The first book to analyze the moral psychology of contempt and to argue that it possesses virtues as well as vices

Hard Feelings

The Moral Psychology of Contempt

Macalester Bell

Description

At a time when respect is widely touted as an attitude of central moral importance, contempt is often derided as a thoroughly nasty emotion inimical to the respect we owe all persons. But while contempt is regularly dismissed as completely disvaluable, ethicists have had very little to say about what contempt is or whether it deserves its ugly reputation. Macalester Bell argues that we must reconsider contempt's role in our moral lives. While contempt can be experienced in inapt and disvaluable ways, it may also be a perfectly appropriate response that provides the best way of answering a range of neglected faults.

Using a wide variety of examples, Bell provides an account of the nature of contempt and its virtues and vices. While some insist that contempt is always unfitting because of its globalism, Bell argues that this objection mischaracterizes the person assessments at the heart of contempt. Contempt is, in some cases, the best way of responding to arrogance, hypocrisy, and other vices of superiority. Contempt does have a dark side, and inapt forms of contempt structure a host of social ills. Racism is best characterized as an especially pernicious form of inapt contempt, and Bell's account of contempt helps us better understand the moral badness of racism. It is argued that the best way of responding to race-based contempt is to mobilize a robust counter-contempt for racists.

The book concludes with a discussion of overcoming contempt through forgiveness. This account of forgiveness sheds light upon the broader issue of social reconciliation and what role reparations and memorials may play in giving persons reasons to overcome their contempt for institutions.

Hard Feelings

The Moral Psychology of Contempt

Macalester Bell

Introduction: The Moral Importance Of Contempt
Chapter 1: What Is Contempt?
1.1 Contempt And Feeling Theories Of Emotion
1.2 Intentionality, Rationality, And Cognitive Theories Of
Emotion
1.3 Contempt's Evaluative Presentation
1.4 Active And Passive Contempt
1.5 Contempt, Hatred And Disgust
1.5.1 Contempt And Disgust
1.5.2 Contempt And Hatred
1.6 Potential Problem Cases
1.6.1 Contempt For Non-Persons
1.6.2 Self-Contempt
Chapter 2: Contempt As A Fitting Globalist Emotion
2.1 Can Contempt Ever Fit Its Target?
2.2 Defending Contempt Against The Fittingness Objection
2.3 Fitting Evaluative Prioritizations
2.4 Relationships, Fittingness, And Fitting Attitude
Accounts Of Value
Chapter 3: Contempt And The Vices Of Superiority
3.1 Superbia And Vices Of Superiority
3.2 Hypocrisy And Arrogance
3.3 Contempt As An Answer To Vices Of Superiority
3.4 Cowardice, Stupidity, And Lightheartedness
Chapter 4: The Moral Value Of Contempt
4.1 Passive Contempt In Aristotle And Nietzsche
4.2 Contempt's Aptness Conditions
4.3 Contempt's Moral Value
4.3.1 Contempt's Instrumental Value
4.3.2 Contempt's Non-Instrumental Value
4.4 Challenges To An Ethic Of Contempt
4.4.1 Contempt's Globalism And Aptness
4.4.2 Respect-Based Arguments Against Contempt
4.4.3 Contempt And Comparisons
4.4.4 Withdrawal And Moral Address
4.5 Do We Have An Obligation To Contemn?
Chapter 5: Contempt, Racism, And Civility's Limits
5.1. Contempt And Anti-Black Racism: The Case Of The
Obama Bucks Cartoon
5.2 Race-Based Contempt As A Vice
5.3 Race-Based Contempt As Unfitting
5.4 Race-Based Contempt As Inapt
5.5 Contempt And Civility
Chapter 6: Contempt, Forgiveness, And Reconciliation
6.1 A Problem With The Standard Account Of Forgiveness
6.2 The Fundamental Features Of Forgiveness
6.3 The Standard Account Of Our Reasons To Forgive
6.3.1 Repentance
6.3.2 Excuses And Good Intentions
6.4 Reasons To Overcome Contempt Through Forgiveness
6.4.1 Character Transformation
6.4.2 Shame
6.5 Do We Genuinely Forgive In Overcoming Contempt?
6.6 Contempt, Symbolic Reparations And Social
Reconciliation
Conclusion: "Contempt Is Not A Thing to Be Despised"
Bibliography

Hard Feelings

The Moral Psychology of Contempt

Macalester Bell

Author Information

Macalester Bell, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Bryn Mawr College

Macalester Bell is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Bryn Mawr College. Her published papers take up fundamental questions concerning anger, blame, forgiveness, reparation, and inspiration.

Hard Feelings

The Moral Psychology of Contempt

Macalester Bell

Reviews and Awards

"Bell's investigation of contempt in Hard Feelings is to be praised for its thoroughness, carefulness, creativeness and incisiveness. It is a very well argued monograph and if you are at all interested in ethics or moral psychology, you should read it." - Matthew Van Cleave, Metapsychology

"I've read Bell's book on contempt with great interest and pleasure. Its central thesis is bold: Bell analyses contempt, and convincingly defines circumstances in which it is a morally appropriate emotion. The case she makes is original and very thoroughly argued, and it's clearly and accessibly written." - Ronald de Sousa, Department of Philosophy, University of Toronto

"[Hard Feelings] is a good book, very much worth reading, clearly written, challenging, and stimulating of much thought." - Robert C. Roberts, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

"In Hard Feelings, Macalester Bell defends the moral value of contempt. She argues that sometimes contempt is the best moral response. We ought to feel contempt when others manifest certain vices of character. Bell's arguments are sharp and clearly presented. She makes a persuasive case that contempt has been misunderstood in the literature." - Journal of Moral Philosophy