I assume you are familiar with Hanlon’s razor.
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
Is there any “true” malice? Can’t almost all “malice” be explained by greed, ignorance, or some other deadly sin?
Is malice a real emotion or an illusion people came up with to justify actions of their opposition? Malice is mentioned wherever there is conflict between humans (and that’s a lot.)
As always, someone has already thought of this in some form. Here are some quick starting points:
The Wikipedia page for Hanlon’s razor proceeds to list extended versions of Hanlon’s razor by other people.
Malice in law is defined as “an actual intention to do the particular kind of harm that in fact was done; or recklessness as to whether such harm should occur” which doesn’t really care about the exact motivations of the harm.
I might be (am) naive, but I don’t believe that malice exists as a real emotion (at least the way it is mostly thought/imagined as.) Seeing the bad side of the world mostly through media/paper, has most likely mislead my understanding of malice.
Please don’t confuse the emotion malice (wish to cause harm for the sake of causing harm) with the more general action malice (intention to cause harm with a motivation.)
So, is malice a real emotion? And assuming yes, what is the best way to interpret it?
Yes, it is a real emotion. I have felt it on some rare occasions. I do not act on it, though on such occasions I cannot rule out the possibility that it may influence me in less direct ways.
I don’t know what you mean by “best way to interpret it”. What sort of interpretation are you looking for? For example, what are your best ways of interpreting other emotions?