The OP, as well as the other hypocrisy-favorable posts linked by Abram here in the comments, seem to do a poor job IMO at describing why anti-hypocrisy norms could be important. Edit: Or, actually, it seems like they argue in favor for a slightly different concept, not what I’d call “hypocrisy.”
I like the definition given in the OP:
1. a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not : behavior that contradicts what one claims to believe or feel
The OP then describes a case where someone thinks “behavior x is bad,” but engages in x anyway. Note that, according to the definition given, this isn’t necessarily hypocrisy! It only constitutes hypocrisy if you implicitly or explicitly lead others to believe that you never (or only very infrequently) do the bad thing yourself. If you engage in moral advocacy in an honest, humble or even self-deprecating way, there’s no hypocrisy.
One might argue (e.g., Katja’s argument) that it’s inefficient to do moral advocacy without hypocrisy. That seems like dubious naive-consequentialist reasoning. Besides, I’m not sure it’s empirically correct. (Again, I might be going off a subtly different definition of “hypocrisy.”) I find arguments the most convincing when the person who makes them seems honest and relatable. There are probably target audiences to whom this doesn’t apply, but how important are those target audiences (e.g., they may also not be receptive to rational arguments)? I don’t see what there’s to lose by not falsely pretending to be a saint. The people who reject your ideas because you’re not perfect, they were going to reject your ideas anyway! That was never their true rejection – they are probably just morally apathetic / checked out. Or trolls.
The way I see it, hypocrisy is an attempt to get social credit via self-deception or deceiving others. All else equal, that seems clearly bad.
I’d say that the worst types of people are almost always extreme hypocrites. And they really can’t seem to help it. Whether it’s deceit of others or extreme self-deception, seeing this stuff in others is a red flag. I feel like it muddles the waters if you start to argue that hypocrisy is often okay.
I don’t disagree with the view in the OP, but I don’t like the framing. It argues not in favor of the hypocrisy as it’s defined, but something in the vicinity.
I feel like the framing of these “pro-hypocrisy” arguments should rather be “It’s okay to not always live up to your ideals, but also you should be honest about it.” Actual hypocrisy is bad, but it’s also bad to punish people for admitting imperfections. Perversely, by punishing people for not being moral saints, one incentivizes the bad type of hypocrisy.
tl;dr hypocrisy is bad, fight me.
(As you may notice, I do have a strong moral distaste for hypocrisy.)
The OP, as well as the other hypocrisy-favorable posts linked by Abram here in the comments, seem to do a poor job IMO at describing why anti-hypocrisy norms could be important. Edit: Or, actually, it seems like they argue in favor for a slightly different concept, not what I’d call “hypocrisy.”
I like the definition given in the OP:
The OP then describes a case where someone thinks “behavior x is bad,” but engages in x anyway. Note that, according to the definition given, this isn’t necessarily hypocrisy! It only constitutes hypocrisy if you implicitly or explicitly lead others to believe that you never (or only very infrequently) do the bad thing yourself. If you engage in moral advocacy in an honest, humble or even self-deprecating way, there’s no hypocrisy.
One might argue (e.g., Katja’s argument) that it’s inefficient to do moral advocacy without hypocrisy. That seems like dubious naive-consequentialist reasoning. Besides, I’m not sure it’s empirically correct. (Again, I might be going off a subtly different definition of “hypocrisy.”) I find arguments the most convincing when the person who makes them seems honest and relatable. There are probably target audiences to whom this doesn’t apply, but how important are those target audiences (e.g., they may also not be receptive to rational arguments)? I don’t see what there’s to lose by not falsely pretending to be a saint. The people who reject your ideas because you’re not perfect, they were going to reject your ideas anyway! That was never their true rejection – they are probably just morally apathetic / checked out. Or trolls.
The way I see it, hypocrisy is an attempt to get social credit via self-deception or deceiving others. All else equal, that seems clearly bad.
I’d say that the worst types of people are almost always extreme hypocrites. And they really can’t seem to help it. Whether it’s deceit of others or extreme self-deception, seeing this stuff in others is a red flag. I feel like it muddles the waters if you start to argue that hypocrisy is often okay.
I don’t disagree with the view in the OP, but I don’t like the framing. It argues not in favor of the hypocrisy as it’s defined, but something in the vicinity.
I feel like the framing of these “pro-hypocrisy” arguments should rather be “It’s okay to not always live up to your ideals, but also you should be honest about it.” Actual hypocrisy is bad, but it’s also bad to punish people for admitting imperfections. Perversely, by punishing people for not being moral saints, one incentivizes the bad type of hypocrisy.
tl;dr hypocrisy is bad, fight me.
(As you may notice, I do have a strong moral distaste for hypocrisy.)