Ordinary Vices

279 Pages·1984·19.858 MB·English

by  Judith N. Shklar

Judith N. Shklar
The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
and London, England
Copyright © 1984 by the President and Fellows
of Harvard College
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
This book has been digitally reprinted. The content remains
identical to that of previous printings.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Shklar, Judith N.
Ordinary vices.
Includes index.
1. Political ethics—Addresses, essays, lectures.
2. Liberalism—Addresses, essays, lectures.
3. Vices—Addresses, essays, lectures. I. Title.
JA79.S44 1984 172 84-531
ISBN 0-674-64175-2 (alk. paper) (cloth)
ISBN 0-674-64176-0 (paper)
Page 261 constitutes an extension of the copyright page.
Designed by Gwen Frankfeldt
For Stanley Hoffmann

cknowledgments
Parts of Chapter 1 and a version of Chapter 2 originally
appeared in Daedalus, summer 1979 and 1982 respectively,
and are here reprinted with its kind permission. I am partic­
ularly grateful to its editor, Stephen R. Graubard, for his
help and encouragement. There is, of course, something
silly about thanking one's friends for being one's friends,
but it is very agreeable to mention their names both in pri­
vate and in public. My conversations with them about this
book have been the best part of writing it. Both when we
agree and when we argue, it is always a great intellectual
pleasure to talk to Stanley Cavell, Stephen Holmes, Harry
Hirsch, Nancy Rosenblum, Michael Walzer, and Bernie
Yack. Every one of them gave me some good advice and re­
newed my confidence in our common scholarly enterprise.
I presented a part of "Putting Cruelty First" at the Lionel
Trilling Seminar of Columbia University on April 2, 1981.
The comments made there, especially by the two discus­
sants, Arthur Danto and George Kateb, were very useful
and I am grateful to them, as I am to Franklin Ford, who also
helped me with the original essay. Finally I would like to
thank the Warden and Fellows of All Souls College, Ox­
ford, for electing me to a Visiting Fellowship for the Trinity
Term of 1983, which allowed me to complete this book
under the best of working conditions.

ontents
Introduction: Thinking about vices l
Î Putting cruelty first 7
2 Let us not be hypocritical 45
3 What is wrong with snobbery? 87
4 The ambiguities of betrayal 138
5 Misanthropy 192
6 Bad characters for good liberals 226
Notes 251 Credits 261 Index 262