What's Wrong with Being Judgemental?

Friday, December 5 @ 3:30 - 5:00 PM

Dr. Emer O'Hagan

ESB 12

Abstract: The notions that we should not be judged by others and should not ourselves be judgmental have significant cultural traction. In this paper I develop an account of the vice of judgementalism partly by contrasting it with an opposing virtue, non-judgementalism or acceptance. I challenge the claim that judgementalism is a second-order vice, a vice concerning our responses to the moral failings of others, arguing instead that it is a first-order vice and a failure of respect. In making my case, I consider and reject two accounts of judgementalism, one which holds that judgementalism is an inappropriate conditioning of one’s relations in response to their moral failings, and another which holds that judgementalism amounts to an attentional pattern focussed on others’ negative qualities. I begin by elaborating on what judgementalism is not.