Envy, Racial Hatred, and Self-Deception

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  • Alessandro Salice
  • Alba Montes Sánchez
Envy is an unpleasant, culturally vilified, and self-threatening emotion that, in many circumstances, tends to mask itself. In other words, due to various factors, envy often exerts some psychological pressure towards self-deception. A domain where this pressure plays an important and underappreciated role is the political and, more concretely, the realm of racism and identity-based discrimination. Despite historical, empirical, and anecdotal evidence indicating that envy can lead to racial hatred, the link between these two emotions, and the role that self-deception plays in this link, remains under-investigated and poorly understood. This chapter aims at remedying this situation by offering an account of the link between envy and racial hatred. After reviewing the evidence available in support of this emotional link, we elaborate on an account of envy we developed in a previous work. We then explain how, why, and under which circumstances envy can transmute into racial hatred by claiming that this transformation process qualifies as an “emotional mechanism”. We conclude by arguing that the envy-racial hatred emotional mechanism is based on self-deception and, as such, is an immature coping mechanism set in motion by the subject to avoid a negative sense of self.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationEmotional Self-Knowledge
EditorsAlba Montes Sánchez, Alessandro Salice
Number of pages21
Place of PublicationNew York
PublisherRoutledge
Publication date2023
Pages188-208
Chapter9
ISBN (Electronic)9781003310945
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023
EventEmotional Self-Knowledge - University College Cork, Cork, Ireland
Duration: 4 May 20226 May 2022

Workshop

WorkshopEmotional Self-Knowledge
LocationUniversity College Cork
LandIreland
ByCork
Periode04/05/202206/05/2022
SeriesRoutledge studies in contemporary philosophy

ID: 340700433