Prokofiev, A. V. The Role of Reactive Anti-Altruistic Emotions in Psychological Experience of Justice

Abstract: The author of the article analyzes issues arising from the fact that psychological experience of justice includes reactive altruistic emotions. Such emotions apparently contradict to the central idea of morals — a demand to perform self-initiated altruistic actions. Some philosophers of morals and moralists eliminate this contradiction trying to prove the thesis that true justice has nothing to do with reactive anti-altruistic feelings such as indignation and, in particular, envy and rancor. The author of the article uses results of various researches in social psychology, socio-biology and psychology of moral development proving that that aforesaid statement is wrong. However, this connection does not demean psychological experience of justice because both envious and rancorous emotional impulses are held back and considerably transformed in the process of moral development.

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