The same person can be good and evil simultaneously while preserving moral self-image

Evidence

Indeed, with selective moral disengagement, the same person can be both good and bad simultaneously and even preserve a sense of moral integrity while behaving inhumanely. On one hand, Cardinal Mahony marched with César Chávez for the rights of Hispanic farm workers and championed other Hispanic causes (Goodstein, 2013b). On the other hand, he betrayed the Hispanic community by allowing the sexual abuse of children. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 530 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

In the insightful words of one of the parishioners, a person is neither “entirely good” nor “entirely bad” (Medina & Lovett, 2013). Indeed, with selective moral disengagement, the same person can be both good and bad simultaneously and even preserve a sense of moral integrity while behaving inhumanely. On one hand, Cardinal Mahony marched with César Chávez for the rights of Hispanic farm workers and championed other Hispanic causes (Goodstein, 2013b). On the other hand, he betrayed the Hispanic community by allowing the sexual abuse of children. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 530 (#expands, via linked claim)

Virtue ethics is essentially a dispositional trait theory of morality. Theories that invest dispositions with overruling power predict higher consistency in moral behavior across situations and areas of life than is observed (Bandura, 1999). In practice, virtuous individuals can behave harmfully under social inducements and even enlist their virtues in the service of violent means for ideological and religious purposes. When bad means are used for good ends, virtues conflict. Inflicting harm is morally reprehensible but improving peoples’ well-being is morally laudatory. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 202 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: A builder’s name can invert from symbol of good to symbol of evil — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 4684; Selective moral disengagement lets the same person be both good and bad at once — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 530; Moral character holds coexisting possibilities that circumstances alternately surface — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 50 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• A person can act virtuously and inhumanely at once while preserving self-image #corroborates (0.97) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 530
• Selective moral disengagement lets the same person be both good and bad at once #expands (0.95) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 530
• Virtuous character does not yield consistent moral behavior across situations #complicates (0.74) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 202