Preliminaries—Unit 5 PHIL 211: Why Are Bad People Bad? Unit Question: Do our attitudes make us bad? Resentment, Revenge, and Ambition Reflection Questions: What is it to resent someone? Is it ever morally permissible to resent another? If so, do we resent in such a way, or are we more likely to resent inappropriately? What negative outcomes might resentment have? Is revenge ever morally acceptable? Is ambition ever wrong? What are the positive and negative consequences of ambition? Nietzsche from Beyond Good and Evil Study Questions: What does Nietzsche think a formal conscience is? What does Nietzsche think is the original origin of the term ‘good’? What is the slave morality? What is the master morality? What is the will to power? Critical Questions: Is a formal conscience bad? Is it possible that we all have the master morality at some times and the slave morality at others? Do you think this picture of our moral psychology is accurate? Solomon, from “Nietzsche ad hominem: Perspectivism, personality, and ressentiment revisited” Study Questions: What is ressentiment? What is the difference between accounting for and justifying moral principles? What is the story about everyone getting an ‘A’ supposed to show? What is the problem with universality? How is the grammar of “ought” political? How is resentment pathetic? Critical Questions: Do our laws motivate greatness? Or do they motivate resentment? What is the difference between an negative law and a positive law? Should we have more of one kind or the other? Why or why not? Bacon, “Of Revenge” Study Questions: What is revenge? What relation does revenge have with justice? Why does passing revenge over make one superior? Critical Questions: Is revenge ever okay? Is it ever obligatory? Bacon, “Of Ambition” Study Questions: What does it mean to say that ambition is like a choler? What happens when ambitious men are “checked in their desires”? What use is ambition? Critical Questions: Is ambition always bad? When, if ever, is it good? Do you agree with Bacon’s assessments of it? Bacon “Of Goodness” Study Questions: What is goodness? What is goodness of nature? How are the two related? How are they different? What role does philanthropy play in goodness? Critical Questions: Do you think there are any people as good as Bacon’s description of goodness requires? What would it take? Anton, “The Nietzschean Influence in The Incredibles and the Sidekick Revolt” Study Questions: What does it mean to be super? What is Nietzsche’s view? What is the slave revolt? Why does Nietzsche think it happened? How do the supers in The Incredibles embody the Nietzschean superhero? How do they fall short? Critical Questions: Is it possible to be too humble? Can humility dwarf our growth? What threat, if any, does mediocrity pose? Pride, Envy, Sloth, Gluttony, and Lust Reflection Questions: What makes a sin deadly? What do the seven deadly sins (pride, rage, envy, greed, sloth, gluttony, and lust) have in common? What separates them? Are they all bad? Or is it just and excess of them that is bad? How might these contribute to becoming bad? Gabriele Taylor, from Deadly Vices Study Questions: What does it mean for an emotion to have: intentional content; internal objects; external objects; and focus? What is the difference between an emotion and a mood? What is sloth? Why does Taylor think it is only a deadly sin if it is a standing mood? What do sloth and pride have in common, according to Taylor? What do gluttony and lust have in common, according to Taylor? How is this more than the mere fact that each is a “sin of the flesh”? Why do desire and pleasure have so much to do with the deadly sins? Critical Questions: Given Taylor’s description of lust, are we left incapable of describing purely physical sexual gratification as lust? Must lust involve another? Is it the case that purely sexual desire (that of using others or even that involved in masturbation) is perverse? If so, how is this perversity different from the ways in which the sin of lust is perverse (or, at least, immoral)? Do you think Taylor captures this deadly sin well? Why or why not? Robert J. Hutchinson, “Pride” from The Book of Vices Study Questions: What is megalopsychia? Why doesn’t Hutchinson think it is the same thing as the sin of pride? What constitutes the sin of pride? How is pride represented in the excerpt from Milton? How is pride represented in the excerpt from Moliere? What is the difference between pride and self-reliance? Critical Questions: Is pride ever a good thing? When isn’t it good? How many ways can one be proud? Of what things can one be proud? Is there something about the objects of pride that make them suitable or not? Or do you think it has more to do with the perspective of the prideful person? Or is it something else? Robert J. Hutchinson, “Envy” from The Book of Vices Study Questions: How is envy the “spiritual foundation of our most important social enterprises” (213) according to Hutchinson? What are the two basic types of envy according to Aquinas? Are they both bad? What does Horace think about Envy? Does he believe it is sincere? Is it pathological? What is penis envy? Critical Questions: Do you think that Hutchinson is accurately describing envy? Is there a difference between envy and jealousy? Might one be more sinful than the other? Greed and Self-Deception Reflection Questions: What does it mean to be greedy? What does it mean to have enough? What does it mean to want too much? Must we trick ourselves into thinking we need something when we are greedy? What is self-deception? How is that even possible? How can one deceive oneself? Robert J. Hutchinson, “Greed” from The Book of Vices Study Questions: What is a luxury? How might it factor into greed? Is greed relative to time and surplus? Why does Juvenal say that young men must learn to be greedy, and that it is not natural to them? How does Wolfe manage to incorporate the attitudes of greed and self-deception? How does Ivins describe the vice of greed as it relates to power? How does Chaucer’s pardoner manage to be greedy by preaching against greed? Critical Questions: Do you believe that “the problem with money does not lie in having it, but spending it on the wrong stuff” (75)? Might there be a problem in having it (or hoarding it…meaning one doesn’t spend it at all)? Why, do you think, does Dante describe the greedy as beyond recognition? Is there something about the greedy that makes them all the same? Bruce Hamstra, “Fooling Yourself: Blind Spots and Other Psychological Shenanigans” in Why Good People Do Bad Things Study Questions: How does one’s self-concept factor in to self-deception? What is a gatekeeper/schema? How does it operate sub-consciously? How might self-esteem inform self-deception? How might excuses coupled with self-deception lead to being irresponsible? Critical Questions: Do most people believe themselves to be good? Do you think that most people are good? How might a discrepancy in your answer explain some of the seriousness of the extent of self-deception? Is all self-deception bad? Might some be therapeutic? Might some motivate us to try to do things we are not truly capable of accomplishing? Might that be a good thing? Might a little self-deception go a long way in pushing ourselves to the limit? How do our expectations and needs affect self-deception? If our expectations and needs do affect self-deception, might it be the case that, if we need little, we might be less susceptible to self-deception? Do you think that is empirically the case?