Misanthropy

Misanthropy is aversion, distrust, contempt or hatred, in general towards the human species, human behavior or human nature. A misanthrope is someone who has such opinions or feelings. This term has its origin in the Greek words μῖσος mīsos 'hatred' and ἄνθρωπος ānthropos 'man, human'. Misanthropy involves a negative evaluative attitude toward humanity that is based on a negative judgment about humanity's shortcomings. These defects are considered ubiquitous, that is, possessed by almost everyone to a serious degree and not just by a few extreme cases. It is also maintained that they are rooted, meaning that there is no way to rectify them or it is not easy unless there is a complete transformation of the dominant way of life.

The main defects pointed out by misanthropes include intellectual defects, moral defects and aesthetic defects.

Intellectual defects, such as delusional thinking, dogmatism, stupidity, and cognitive biases, are those that lead to false beliefs, obstruct knowledge, or violate the demands of knowledge. rationality.

Moral defects, such as cruelty, indifference to the suffering of others, selfishness and cowardice, are usually identified with tendencies to promote evil or with inappropriate attitudes towards values.

Aesthetic defects refer to ugliness and include ugly aspects of human life, ugliness caused by human activities, and lack of sensitivity to beauty.

Proponents of misanthropy often focus on moral failings and provide several examples of its manifestations, such as mass killings, factory farming, and environmental pollution. Opponents respond to this by pointing out that serious moral defects only manifest in a few mentally ill people or in extreme circumstances, which is denied by misanthropes.

Another important consideration for flaw-based arguments is that they only highlight one side of humanity, whereas evaluative attitudes should take all sides into account. Other arguments against misanthropy are not based on whether this attitude adequately reflects the negative value of man, but on the costs of accepting a position associated with hatred, for the individual and for society at large.

Advocates have responded to this by showing how a misanthropic outlook can lead to several different ways of life. While some of them are based on hate and can lead to violence, others focus more on fear and seclusion from negative influence. Other alternatives include resignation and activism fueled by the hope of achieving radical transformation.

Misanthropy figures in various works of art and philosophy. It is closely related, but not identical, with philosophical pessimism, which implies a negative attitude not only towards humanity, but towards life as a whole. Misanthropic considerations have been used as an argument for antinatalism, the position that coming into existence is bad and that humans therefore have a duty to refrain from procreation.

Definition

Misanthropy (a word of origin from the XVII century, from the Greek misanthrōpos) It is traditionally defined as hatred or distrust of humanity. But it has been argued in contemporary philosophy that this characterization does not fit all those labeled misanthropes. From this point of view, a broader definition considers misanthropy as a negative evaluation of humanity as a whole, based on the vices and defects of humanity. This negative evaluation can be expressed in various forms, hatred is just one of them. In this sense, misanthropy has a cognitive component: its negative attitude towards humanity is based on a negative judgment about humanity, it is not just a blind aversion.

An important aspect of all forms of misanthropy is that their goal is not local, but ubiquitous. Therefore, the negative attitude is not directed only at some individual people or groups of people, but at humanity as a whole. This distinguishes misanthropes from groups such as racists, misogynists and misandrists, who maintain a negative attitude towards certain races or genders, respectively. So these forms of discrimination and intolerance are not general characteristics of misanthropes. Both misanthropes and their critics agree that negative traits and defects are not distributed equally. equitably, that is, that vices and bad characteristics are exemplified much more strongly in some than in others. But the negative evaluation of humanity by misanthropes is not based on a few extreme and prominent cases: it is a condemnation of humanity as a whole, including the most ordinary cases. Due to this focus on the ordinary, a It is sometimes held that defects are obvious and open for all to see, but because of intellectual defects, people tend to ignore them or even praise them as virtues. Some view defects as part of human nature as such. Others also base their opinion on non-essential defects, that is, on what humanity has become. This includes defects seen as symptoms of modern civilization in general. However, both groups agree that the relevant defects are "rooted" (entrenched): there is no way to rectify them or it is not easy, it would require nothing less than a complete transformation of the dominant way of life, if that is possible.

Forms of human defects

A central aspect of misanthropy is that its negative attitude towards humanity is based on human defects. Various misanthropes have provided extensive lists of defects, including cruelty, greed, selfishness, wastefulness, dogmatism, self-deception and insensitivity to beauty. These defects can be classified in several ways. Traditional religious texts tend to focus on spiritual defects, such as ungodliness. But in contemporary academic literature on the subject, the focus is more on intellectual defects, moral defects and aesthetic defects. Although all of these forms carry some weight in justifying a misanthropic perspective, it is often argued that the moral failings are the most serious, for example with respect to the treatment of animals by humans.

Intellectual defects affect our cognitive abilities. They can be defined as what leads to false beliefs, what obstructs knowledge or what violates the demands of rationality. They include intellectual vices, such as arrogance, delusional thinking, dogmatism, stupidity and gullibility, and cognitive biases, such as confirmation bias, self-serving bias, hindsight bias, and the anchoring effect. Intellectual defects can work in tandem with all kinds of vices: they can deceive someone that they have a certain vice and therefore prevent them from addressing it and improving themselves. A cruel person, for example, may convince himself, motivated by wishful thinking, that he is not being cruel but firm. Similar considerations have led some traditions to consider intellectual defects, such as ignorance, as the root cause. of all evils.

But the most common approach within misanthropic literature is to locate humanity's most serious flaws on the moral level. Moral vices are often identified with tendencies to promote evil or with inappropriate attitudes toward values. They include cruelty, indifference to the suffering of others, selfishness, moral laziness, cowardice, injustice, greed, and ingratitude. The harm caused by these vices can be divided into three categories: harm caused directly to other human beings, harm caused directly to animals, and harm caused indirectly to both humans and animals by damaging the environment. Examples of these categories include the Holocaust, factory farming, and pollution causing climate change, respectively.

Normally, aesthetic defects are not given the same importance as moral and intellectual defects, but they also have some weight for misanthropic considerations. These defects are related to beauty and ugliness. They refer to ugly aspects of human life itself, such as defecation and aging, to ugliness caused by human activities, such as pollution and garbage, and to inappropriate attitudes towards aesthetic aspects such as insensitivity to beauty.

Arguments for and against

Several arguments have been presented for and against adopting a misanthropic perspective. Proponents often focus on various forms of human defects, such as those discussed in the last section, along with examples of when they exert their negative influences. Opponents often respond to such examples by pointing out that these are extreme individual manifestations of defects. humans, whether by mentally ill perpetrators or by normal people in extreme circumstances, which do not reflect humanity in general and therefore cannot justify the misanthropic attitude. So, although there are cases of extreme human brutality, such as mass killings committed by Mao Zedong or Adolf Hitler, listing such cases is not enough to condemn humanity in general. Misanthropes have responded to these types of arguments in various ways. Some maintain that the underlying defects are present in everyone, even if they reach their most extreme form of manifestation only in a few. Others point out that many ordinary people are complicit in their manifestation, for example, by supporting political leaders who commit them, even if they have not committed them directly. Another approach is to focus not on the big extreme cases, but on the ordinary, small-scale manifestations of human defects, such as lying, cheating, breaking promises, or being ungrateful.

A different problem for arguments based on human defects is that they present only one side of humanity, while evaluative attitudes must take all sides into account. Thus, it may be the case that, despite having very serious vices, human beings also possess equally important virtues that compensate for their defects. While it is difficult to make such large-scale comparisons, misanthropes have argued that, at least In important subfields, such as the treatment of animals by humans, the balance is clearly tilted against man.

Some arguments against misanthropy are based not on whether this attitude adequately reflects the negative value of man, but on the costs of accepting such a stance, for the individual and for society at large. This is especially relevant if misanthropy is associated with a hatred of humanity, which can easily turn into violence against social institutions and can result in much harm. Regarding the misanthropic individual, it has been argued that misanthropy makes one miserable and friendless and therefore deprives us of most pleasures. Proponents have pointed out that misanthropy is not necessarily connected with hatred, violence and friendlessness, meaning that there are several other misanthropic ways of life that avoid these arguments.

Misanthropic ways of life

Although misanthropy is based on a negative judgment of humanity, it is not limited merely to a theoretical opinion. Instead, it implies an evaluative attitude that demands a practical response. This is done in different ways of life that come with different dominant emotions and various practical consequences for how to lead one's life. These responses to misanthropy are sometimes presented through simplified prototypes that may be too crude to accurately capture the reality. mental life of a single person, but instead aim to portray common attitudes among groups of misanthropes. The two responses most commonly associated with misanthropy are destructive and fugitive. The destructive misanthrope is said to be driven by hatred of humanity and aims to tear it down, with violence if necessary. For the fugitive misanthrope, fear is the dominant emotion and leads him to seek a secluded place to avoid corrupting contact with civilization and humanity as much as possible. Contemporary misanthropic literature also has identified two other, lesser-known types of misanthropic lifestyles: the activist and the quietist response. The activist misanthrope is driven by hope despite his negative assessment of humanity. This hope is based on the idea that it is possible and feasible for humanity to transform itself, and the activist actively works towards this ideal. The quietist misanthrope, on the other hand, takes a more pessimistic approach towards what the individual can do to achieve this transformation. In contrast to the more radical reactions of the other responses mentioned, he resigns himself to silent acceptance and small-scale avoidance.

Misanthropy in various areas

Philosophy

Perhaps it is in philosophy where the most primitive hatred towards human beings is observed. Philosophers have always considered "man" to be the greatest danger.

"I become more greedy, more ambitious, more sensual, even more cruel and more inhuman, because I was among men"

Seneca said in his letters. But it is not only a matter of preserving oneself from man, but there is a philosophical pleasure in the ruin of existences given over to the sensitive and the passionate. We speak of pleasure, not exactly of apathy towards man, since there is a joy that arises from the misfortune of others which, according to Kant, means the appearance of misanthropy in all its horror.

It is not only about being safe from impunity, but, with joy, the philosopher observes the spectacle of seeing the rest of men covered by it.

On the other hand, the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer was almost as certainly a misanthrope as his reputation indicates. He wrote:

"Human existence must be a kind of mistake."

However, misanthropy does not necessarily equate to an inhuman attitude towards humanity. In fact, Schopenhauer concluded that:

"Ethic treatment for others was the best attitude, for we are all suffering and part of the same will to live. »

He also analyzed suicide from a comprehensive attitude that was strange for his time, when it was a taboo subject.

On the other hand, without being able to consider adopting a properly misanthropic position, it is interesting to observe the position adopted by the Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset with respect to the subject matter. In the prologue for French to his famous work entitled The rebellion of the masses , he openly declares:

That I have never addressed humanity. This custom of speaking to humanity, which is the most sublime and therefore the most despicable form of democracy, was adopted about 1750 by discarded intellectuals, ignorant of their own limits, and that by their trade, the men of saying, of logos, have used it without respect or precautions, without realizing that the word is a sacrament of very delicate administration."

The German Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, with his philosophy of the Übermensch, shows contempt for humans. He encourages him to surpass himself and be "superman." As an example the following can be cited.

What is the monkey for man? An irritation or a painful shame. And just that is what man must be for the superman: an irritation or a painful shame.

So Zaratustra spoke.Friedrich Nietzsche

Literature

Misanthropy in literature is attributed to numerous satirical writers, such as William S. Gilbert (I Hate My Guys). 'The Misanthrope' by Molière is an example of misanthropy in classical theatre.

Politics

There has been reflection on the idea that originates the misanthropic feeling: Is it a rejection of "Humanity" as an abstract entity or of concrete men of flesh and blood? The term humanity greatly exceeds "people": it encompasses the idea of something that extends over time, of a legacy and a project. So, in the political sphere, misanthropy is not expressed in a generic rejection of humanity, but in contempt for what human beings do when they have power or when they lack it.

From Plato to Seneca they had this vision of the human being, a condition from which it was only possible to escape through Philosophy.

Titus Livy maintained:

Pledge or serve with humanity or dominate with pride.

Already in Modernity, according to the skeptical tradition, the world is considered a "hospital for madmen", populated by senseless and incurable existences.

Related concepts

Philosophical pessimism

Misanthropy is closely related, but not identical, with philosophical pessimism. Philosophical pessimism is the position that life as a whole is not worth living or that the world in general is a bad place, for example, because it is meaningless and full of suffering. The best example of this point is view is perhaps Arthur Schopenhauer. Philosophical pessimism is often accompanied by misanthropy, holding that humanity is also evil and perhaps partially responsible for the evil of the world. But the two views do not imply each other and can be held separately. A non-misanthropic pessimist may maintain, for example, that human beings are only victims of a terrible world, but they are not to blame for it. Eco-misanthropes, on the other hand, may claim that the world and its nature are valuable except for the negative and destructive influence of humanity.

Antinatalism

Antinatalism is the view that coming into existence is evil and that humans therefore have a duty to refrain from procreation. An important argument in favor of antinatalism is the misanthropic argument. He sees the deep flaws of humans and their tendency to cause harm, both to other humans and animals, as a reason to avoid creating more humans. These damages include wars, genocides, factory farming and damage caused to the environment. This argument contrasts with philanthropic arguments, which focus on the future suffering of the human being who is about to come into existence.