Envy, racial hatred, and self-deception

Thumbnail Image
Files
Date
2023-04-13
Authors
Salice, Alessandro
Montes Sánchez, Alba
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Routledge
Published Version
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003310945-12
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Abstract
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.
Description
Keywords
Emotional mechanism , Envy , Racial hatred , Racism , Self-deception
Citation
Salice, A. and Montes Sánchez, A. (2023) 'Envy, racial hatred, and self-deception', in Montes Sánchez, A. and Salice, A. (eds.) Emotional Self-Knowledge. New York: Routledge. doi: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003310945-12
Link to publisher’s version
URI
https://hdl.handle.net/10468/15495
Collections
Philosophy - Book Chapters
Copyright
© 2023, the Authors. All rights reserved. This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge in Montes Sánchez, A. and Salice, A. (eds.) Emotional Self-Knowledge on 13 April 2023, available online: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003310945-12