Ordinary Vices / Edition 1

by Judith N. Shklar

Overview

The seven deadly sins of Christianity represent the abysses of character, whereas Judith Shklar’s “ordinary vices”—cruelty, hypocrisy, snobbery, betrayal, and misanthropy—are merely treacherous shoals, flawing our characters with mean-spiritedness and inhumanity.

Shklar draws from a brilliant array of writers—Molière and Dickens on hypocrisy, Jane Austen on snobbery, Shakespeare and Montesquieu on misanthropy, Hawthorne and Nietzsche on cruelty, Conrad and Faulkner on betrayal—to reveal the nature and effects of the vices. She examines their destructive effects, the ambiguities of the moral problems they pose to the liberal ethos, and their implications for government and citizens: liberalism is a difficult and challenging doctrine that demands a tolerance of contradiction, complexity, and the risks of freedom.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674641761
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	07/01/1985
Series:	Belknap Press Series
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	278
Sales rank:	520,305
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Judith Shklar was John Cowles Professor of Government at Harvard University and a MacArthur Fellow.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Thinking about Vices

1. Putting Cruelty First

2. Let Us not be Hypocritical

3. What is Wrong with Snobbery?

4. The Ambiguities of Betrayal

5. Misanthropy

6. Bad Characters for Good Liberals

Notes

Credits

Index

What People are Saying About This

A distinguished book, full of wit, humanity, and insight...It is also, and more importantly, a moral psychology for liberals.

Michael Walzer

A distinguished book, full of wit, humanity, and insight...It is also, and more importantly, a moral psychology for liberals.

Editorial Reviews

The book is a delight to read. At every turn of the argument it spurs one to think, and gives added pleasure with each new perplexity it raises. Readers who relish thinking for its own sake will be happy to join in the sheer exuberance of it.

Times Higher Education Supplement - Ronald Beiner

These are civilized excursions, literate and sensitive, and I cherish the book for its effort to move us out of the metalanguage and into the heart of darkness. Once we acknowledge the ordinariness of ordinary vices, the banality of normal badness, we may find ourselves not so distant from the moral monsters of human history, who may simply be us, writ large.

Times Literary Supplement - A. C. Danto

A distinguished book, full of wit, humanity, and insight… It is also, and more importantly, a moral psychology for liberals.

Michael Walzer

The book is a delight to read. At every turn of the argument it spurs one to think, and gives added pleasure with each new perplexity it raises. Readers who relish thinking for its own sake will be happy to join in the sheer exuberance of it.--Ronald Beiner "Times Higher Education Supplement"

These are civilized excursions, literate and sensitive, and I cherish the book for its effort to move us out of the metalanguage and into the heart of darkness. Once we acknowledge the ordinariness of ordinary vices, the banality of normal badness, we may find ourselves not so distant from the moral monsters of human history, who may simply be us, writ large.--A. C. Danto "Times Literary Supplement"

A distinguished book, full of wit, humanity, and insight... It is also, and more importantly, a moral psychology for liberals.--Michael Walzer

From the Publisher

These are civilized excursions, literate and sensitive, and I cherish the book for its effort to move us out of the metalanguage and into the heart of darkness. Once we acknowledge the ordinariness of ordinary vices, the banality of normal badness, we may find ourselves not so distant from the moral monsters of human history, who may simply be us, writ large.
— A. C. Danto

Times Literary Supplement

The book is a delight to read. At every turn of the argument it spurs one to think, and gives added pleasure with each new perplexity it raises. Readers who relish thinking for its own sake will be happy to join in the sheer exuberance of it.
— Ronald Beiner

Times Higher Education Supplement