Description
Book SynopsisJudith 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.
Trade ReviewThese 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 *
A distinguished book, full of wit, humanity, and insight… It is also, and more importantly, a moral psychology for liberals. -- Michael Walzer
Table of ContentsIntroduction: 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
