The Problem of Hate: Dangerous Implications and Fundamental Resolutions
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Mentor Information
Dr. Benjamin Young
Description
The problem of hate has pervaded society since the beginning of time. It caused the first sin, that of Cain slaughtering Abel. It has prompted a staggering amount of wars and genocides, including the French Revolution, the Holocaust, and the Rwandan genocide. Hate also affects humanity biologically, through the “hate circuit” of neurons that are triggered in the brain. Although the results of hate are almost always the same (destruction of humans in one way or another), there are different ways to approach hate in order to understand its foundation. This paper analyzes two aspects of hate: misology and misanthropy. Misology is defined as a contempt for knowledge, and misanthropy is defined as a contempt for humanity. This paper ties these two aspects into an examination of hate that runs from ancient philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle, to the Scholastic Thomas Aquinas, and ending with modern philosophers such as Hannah Arendt. The example of Cain and Abel is used to show the Christian moral viewpoint on hate. The latter comes full circle at the end of the paper in a defense of two aspects of the virtue of humility, which can be viewed as combating misology and misanthropy respectively.
The Problem of Hate: Dangerous Implications and Fundamental Resolutions
The problem of hate has pervaded society since the beginning of time. It caused the first sin, that of Cain slaughtering Abel. It has prompted a staggering amount of wars and genocides, including the French Revolution, the Holocaust, and the Rwandan genocide. Hate also affects humanity biologically, through the “hate circuit” of neurons that are triggered in the brain. Although the results of hate are almost always the same (destruction of humans in one way or another), there are different ways to approach hate in order to understand its foundation. This paper analyzes two aspects of hate: misology and misanthropy. Misology is defined as a contempt for knowledge, and misanthropy is defined as a contempt for humanity. This paper ties these two aspects into an examination of hate that runs from ancient philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle, to the Scholastic Thomas Aquinas, and ending with modern philosophers such as Hannah Arendt. The example of Cain and Abel is used to show the Christian moral viewpoint on hate. The latter comes full circle at the end of the paper in a defense of two aspects of the virtue of humility, which can be viewed as combating misology and misanthropy respectively.
