Explaining cruel conduct does not excuse it
Evidence
We should note that analyses of the disengagement of morality in the perpetration of inhumanities are not always welcome, for fear that any explanation of cruel conduct excuses it. This is especially true if the personifiers of cruelty are detested evildoers. There is a marked difference between scientific explanations of how moral self-sanctions are disengaged from inhumane conduct and evaluative judgments of that conduct. Elucidating the psychosocial mechanisms of moral disengagement does not excuse or condone the conduct being analyzed. Rather, scientific knowledge informs us on how to prevent and counteract the suspension of morality in the perpetration of inhumanities. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 337
Categorization
Category: Craft and Method
Related
- Explaining cruelty’s mechanisms does not excuse it (similarity 0.96)
- Explaining inhumane conduct alongside moral conduct is the harder test of moral theory (similarity 0.85)
- Criminals must preserve self-respect by sanitizing and deflecting blame for misconduct. (similarity 0.84)
- Societies must build systems that make cruelty difficult, not rely on individual morality (similarity 0.83)
- Disengaging self-sanctions requires contesting evidence of harm rather than denying the act (similarity 0.82)
- Moral restraint fails unless social systems structurally uphold it (similarity 0.82)
- Moral disengagement is common in ordinary daily life, not just atrocities (similarity 0.81)
- Our moral discourse on cruelty is inseparable from legal and political categories (similarity 0.81)
- People routinely use psychosocial means to circumvent their moral principles (similarity 0.81)
- Moral self-censure strength depends on how perpetrators regard their victims. (similarity 0.80)
- Inhumanities are routinely committed in the name of freedom (similarity 0.80)
- More sophisticated moral reasoning does not predict more humane conduct (similarity 0.80)
- Humanizing others reliably blocks cruel behavior even under strong pressure (similarity 0.79)
- Countermeasures must target the specific locus where moral disengagement occurs (similarity 0.79)
- People retain their moral standards while selectively suspending them for harm. (similarity 0.79)