Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Hypocrisy

  • Rand Paul, Jeb Bush, and Hypocrisy

    Apparently, Paul does not understand the concept of hypocrisy.  After Jeb Bush admitted to smoking marijuana during his prep school days, Rand Paul called him a  hypocrite on the ground that he now opposes what he once did.  But this accusation shows a failure on Paul's part to grasp the concept of hypocrisy.  An adequate…

  • Hypocrites in Reverse: Those Who Do Not Preach What They Practice

    Hypocrites are those who will not practice what they preach. They espouse high standards of behavior — which is of course good — but they make little or no attempt to live in accordance with them. Hypocrisy is rightly considered to be a moral defect. But what are we to say about those people who will not…

  • Preacher and Slacker

    There is someone worse than the preacher who falls into hypocrisy, namely, the moral slacker who is not even to the point where hypocrisy is possible.

  • Logic, Hypocrisy, and Tobacco-Wackery

    Ruth Marcus begins her piece, The Perils of Legalized Marijuana, as follows: Marijuana legalization may be the same-sex marriage of 2014 — a trend that reveals itself in the course of the year as obvious and inexorable. At the risk of exposing myself as the fuddy-duddy I seem to have become, I hope not. This…

  • Seeds of Hypocrisy

    One who strives for the ideal but falls short is no hypocrite, but at a certain point the quantity and the quality of his fallings short must plant in his mind a seed of doubt as to whether he really avoids hypocrisy.  He preaches continence, say, but finds it hard to contain his thoughts, which are not…

  • Hypocrisy, the Seven Deadly Sins, and the Left

    If, per impossibile, there were such a catalog as the Seven Deadly Sins as seen from the Left, hypocrisy would be in first place. Why?  Although some who identify themselves as liberals or leftists can be counted among the religious, the dominant note of the Left from at least 1789 on has been anti-religious.  Couple this with…

  • Kant’s Paean to Sincerity

    As a prelude to forthcoming posts on hypocrisy  as seen by Kant and Hegel, here is a Kantian hymn of praise to sincerity.  From Immanuel Kant, Religion Within the Limits of Reason Alone (trs. Greene & Hudson), p. 178, n. 2:  O sincerity! Thou Astraea, that hast fled from earth to heaven, how mayst thou (the basis…

  • Dissembling in the Barber’s Chair

    My barber today asked me if I had done any travelling  since last I saw him.  I lied and said that I hadn't, when in fact I had been to Geneva, Switzerland.  If I had told the truth, then that truth would have led to another and yet another.  "And what did you do in Geneva?"  "I was…

  • Hypocrisy and Other Vices of Self-Presentation

    My exposure of the Dictionary Fallacy was not intended to cast doubt on the utility of dictionaries. Far from it.  Some of their entries are excellent starting points for philosophical inquiry. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, hypocrisy is "assuming a false appearance of virtue or goodness, with dissimulation of real character or inclination, especially…

  • Seneca: Omnis Vita Servitium Est

    Assume the worst.  Assume that Seneca was a hypocrite: he didn't believe what he wrote or try to live in accordance with it.  What would it matter?  How is it relevant to the fact that countless thousands, over the centuries, have derived inspiration, consolation, and strength from passages such as the following?  If a message…

  • Accusations of Hypocrisy as Themselves Hypocritical

    The English 'hypocrite' derives from the Greek hypokrites, actor.  Although one cannot use etymology to show what a word means or even what it ought to mean, let alone its 'true and inherent meaning' (there is no such thing), in the present case the etymology provides a valuable suggestion as to how the word is used…

  • Liberal Hypocrisy

    Bruce Thornton reviews Peter Schweitzer’s Do as I Say (Not as I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy, (Doubleday, 2005, 272 pp.) Excerpts:

  • Hypocrisy in Reverse

    Hypocrites are those who will not practice what they preach. They espouse high standards of behavior — which is of course good — but they make little or no attempt to live in accordance with them. Hypocrisy is rightly considered to be a moral defect. But what are we to say about those people who will not…

  • Hypocrisy and Pope Benedict

    Is the Pope a hypocrite for protesting Islamic violence when the church he heads engaged in violence itself? To answer this question, we need to consider the nature of hypocrisy. I once heard a radio advertisement by a group promoting a "drug-free America." A male voice announces that he is a hypocrite because he demands…

  • Two Ways to Avoid Being a Hypocrite

    There are two ways to avoid being a hypocrite.  So as to have handy labels, I'll call them the liberal way and the conservative way. Liberal Way:  Adjust your standards downwards to the point where there is no discrepancy between what you do and what you espouse. Take what you do and are inclined to do…