Ethics

Are we morally obliged to feel guilt, or shame, when we have done wrong to someone else?

Comments

No, and Spinoza is very good on this, arguing that if we feel remorse when we do something wrong, we are adding one unhappiness to another, and instead of working out how to avoid doing the wrong thing, we often rather enjoy being miserable thinking of it. We ought to be active and improve our moral standing, but we often wallow in misery which makes us passive and fixed in a certain character.

That said, we could use regret in more positive ways, to move us onto more productive ways of acting and moral improvement. In Spinoza's language, for this to work we really need to orient ourselves towards the future rather than the past when reflecting on our behavior and this is very difficult to do. Quite rightly though he did not conclude that we should not set out to attempt it.

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