26 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Although sometimes forgotten in current uses of the term, 'hatred' is a notoriously complex and ambiguous phenomenon. Analyzing and identifying what characterizes hatred and articulating a concept that helps us think more clearly about hatred is difficult. It is not even clear whether hatred is an emotion, an attitude, a sentiment or a passion. This essay departs from the idea that perhaps hatred is analyzable as a retributive reactive attitude. More precisely, it presents a philosophical exploration of what happens if one puts a messy bundle of notions and examples of hatred into the more clear conceptual framework offered by Strawson in 'Freedom and Resentment'. The question whether hatred can be seen as a retributive reactive attitude is examined both with respect to Strawson's division between participant and objective attitudes and with respect to the seemingly most closely related participant attitude, resentment.

Original languageEnglish
JournalPhilosophical Papers
Volume39
Issue number3
Pages (from-to)289-313
Number of pages25
ISSN0556-8641
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2010

Keywords

  • Faculty of Humanities

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