Filozofija i drustvo 2021 Volume 32, Issue 3, Pages: 377-386
https://doi.org/10.2298/FID2103377C
Full text ( 246 KB)
Some remarks on unfocused hatred: Identity of the hated one and criteria of adequacy
Cvejić Igor (Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade, Serbia), cvejic@instifdt.bg.ac.rs
Thomas Szanto has recently argued that hatred could not be a fitting emotion
because of its blurred focus. It thus cannot trace the properties of its
intentional object. Although I agree with the core of Szanto’s account, I
would like to discuss two connected issues that might be of importance.
First, I want to address whether the unfittingness of hatred has anything to
do with the possibility that the hated person does not identify with what
they are hated for. I conclude that if the focus of hatred is blurred,
hatred does not trace the identification of the hated person or group. Next,
I propose a possibility that (certain) criteria of adequacy of hatred (why
someone is treated by members of society as hateworthy) are embedded in the
cultural and social framework in such a way that they are not necessarily
intelligibly justified by their relation to the focus and import it has.
Under such circumstances, with hatred still being unfitting, these criteria
create quasi-correctness of hatred (actually, they trace properties of
someone being hateworthy). If this is correct, it will enable us to keep the
thesis that hatred cannot be fitting. At the same time, we could use
political vocabulary to tackle hatred that is common in cases when a group
will not give up their commitment to hatred and argue that some people or
group of people is not to be hated under the hating group’s own criteria.
Keywords: hatred, identity, fittingness, criteria of adequacy, appropriateness, emotions