In this posting I want examine rudeness. It might be
thought that rudeness is of minor concern to society and hence not of any great
philosophical interest. In the age of Trump and Brexit I believe rudeness
should be of far greater concern to society. For instance, consider the former
Chief Constable of Northumbria Police who resigned over alleged rudeness to
senior colleagues, see the
guardian . It also seems possible that rude
and aggressive behaviour, for rudeness and aggression seem to be linked, might
make teaching more difficult. Lastly it appears that someone’s creativity and
willingness to help others might be damaged by rudeness, see the
psychologist . It follows
there are some reasons as to why rudeness should be of concern to society. I
would suggest that any civilised society must pay attention to the views of all
members of that society. Rudeness involves an inattention to the views of others
and as a result damages discussion by shifting the focus of our attention from
the issues involved to the tone of the discussion. Rudeness means we talk at
each other rather than engage in a meaningful discussion. In the light of the
above I would suggest that any society which accepts a high degree of rudeness
is not a civilised society even if it possesses advanced technology. In this
posting I want to consider a different aspect of rudeness, is rudeness linked
to immorality? Is rudeness a vice?
What do we mean by rudeness? Rudeness might be defined as a
lack of manners or being discourteous. In what follows I won’t deal with
etiquette and mainly focus on someone being discourteous. What then do we mean
when we say someone acts discourteously? One can’t be discourteous to oneself,
discourteousness applies to relationships. Someone acts discourteously in his
relationships if he focusses solely on his needs and wishes without considering
the needs, views and wishes of others. Such a definition of discourteousness
seems to be too broad. For instance someone might not consider the needs, views
and wishes of others due to ignorance. Rudeness, acting discourteously, might
be better defined as knowingly not considering the needs, views and wishes of
others. It might be objected this definition remains too broad as there is a
difference between acting selfishly and acting rudely. My objector might then proceed
to suggest that real rudeness means someone not only not considering the needs,
views and wishes of others but also making explicit his lack of consideration
and perhaps even his contempt for them. In response to my objector in what
follows I will argue that knowing selfishness is a form of rudeness. I would
further respond that my objector is really pointing to more extreme form
rudeness which might be better defined as a type of arrogance rather than
proposing a different concept. Of course it is possible that a more basic form
of rudeness might foster arrogance.
Before proceeding let us be clear what the above definition
entails. It must include a lack of consideration for the views and wishes of
another and not just his needs. If only needs were involved I could be rude to
my dog by not considering his need for exercise. However the above definition
remains inadequate. For instance I could ignore my sleeping partner’s needs,
views and wishes but my lack of consideration would not be a case of rudeness.
Let us modify our definition of rudeness; rudeness might be defined as someone
knowingly not considering the needs, views and wishes of another and at the
time of this inconsideration the other is aware of this inconsideration.
Accepting the above definition means having a joke at
someone else’s expense is not being rude for the joke to be effective one must
be consider the views of another, More importantly accepting the above means that
rudeness and morality are linked. Rudeness need not be linked to
consequentialism or deontology but there seems to be a link with virtue ethics.
However differences remain between acting rudely and acting immorally. Morality
very roughly consists of someone considering the needs of others and acting to
meet these needs provided he judges or feels action is appropriate. Acting
rudely only involves a lack of consideration. It follows rude behaviour need
not necessary be immoral behaviour but that rudeness is on the road to immoral
behaviour and might be regarded as a minor vice. Let us consider an example.
Suppose I knowingly fail to consider ways to get my partner to work, when her
car has broken down and that she is aware of my lack of consideration. Clearly I
have acted rudely. However whether I have also acted immorally depend on the
circumstances. If I had an important doctor’s appointment then I have acted
rudely but not acted in an immoral manner. However if I only want to sleep a bit
longer and a little less sleep would not harm me and I fail to run my partner
to work then I have acted both rudely and acted in a slightly immoral way. It
is also true that behaving in an immoral way towards someone need not be rude
behaviour. I can behave in an immoral way when the subject of my bad behaviour
is unaware of my behaviour. For instance if a charming sociopath might use his
charm to further his own ends without consideration of someone’s needs then he
may be acting immorally but he is not acting rudely.
I now want examine the causes of the lack of consideration
which seems to be an essential element of rudeness. Firstly someone might
attach great importance to his self. Secondly he may lack empathy. This second
reason might explain why it appears that on average men display greater
rudeness than women. In what follows a lack of consideration refers to a
knowing lack of consideration when those who are not considered are aware of
this lack. Someone’s needs will refer to his needs, views and wishes.
The first cause I wish to examine is when someone overvalues
his self-importance. Some of the endemic rudeness on twitter might be partly
due to this overvaluation. Such a person when deciding on how to act focusses solely
on his own needs. If someone focusses on his own needs and these needs don’t
affect others then he is acting prudently rather than rudely. However if someone
focusses on his own needs without any consideration of the needs of others and
he makes others aware of his inconsideration then he acts rudely. If someone
always bases his actions on his own self-importance then I would suggest he
fails to see others of equal importance. But his failure has an additional
element he fails to recognise something essential about his own nature, he
fails to recognise his nature as a social animal. Such a failure damages both
the relationships which help foster society and him personally. Such a failure
also damages discourse which fosters society. Rudeness means people talk at
each other rather than to each other as exemplified by many of the replies on
twitter.
The second important cause of rudeness is that someone
lacks empathy. I must make it clear by empathy I mean associative rather than
projective empathy. A sociopath can project himself into the minds of others
and understand the feelings of others. He might use this understanding to experience
pleasure in the pain of others. Associative empathy means someone experiences
the feelings of others. It seems to me a rude person might have projective
empathy but that he does not have associative empathy. I should make it clear
at this point that I don’t believe only having projective empathy necessarily makes
someone into a sociopath. It makes him indifferent. It also gives him one of
the tools a sociopath needs. I would suggest a lack of associative empathy
damages someone as a person as he lacks an essential element needed in the makeup
of social animals.
I have argued that whilst even if rudeness is not always
immoral it is on the road to immorality. I further argued that rudeness damages
a rude person’s status as a social animal. I would suggest that for the most
people being a social animal is a good. It follows rudeness damages most people
and should regarded as a vice. Rudeness might also be regarded as an epistemic
vice, a way of behaving which makes the acquisition of knowledge difficult, due
to its close relationship with arrogance. At the beginning of this posting I
gave three examples which pointed to rudeness damaging society. What then can
be done to combat rudeness? One thing that might be done is that society should
become less accepting towards rudeness. What is entailed in being less
accepting? Less acceptance means not being indifferent to rudeness but pointing
out to rude people that their rudeness damages them as social animals. However,
less acceptance should simply mean less acceptance and not slip into aggressively
challenging rudeness which might itself might become a form of rudeness. Perhaps
we should ask someone who is rude to us whether they really meant to be rude.
Ask if his sexist remark was really intended or simply bullshit. If such a
strategy fails we should ask why he holds such beliefs, try and make him
justify them, rather than trying to directly confront his beliefs. Secondly we
must become more prepared to accept that other people are the same sort of creatures
as ourselves. We must respect the autonomy of others. This means we must give
priority to respecting someone’s autonomy before acting beneficently towards
him. Indeed acting to satisfy our perception of someone’s needs instead of
attempting to satisfy his expressed needs might be seen as a form of rudeness,
see woolerscottus
. Respecting autonomy means we must be tolerant of persons and their views. However
this toleration should not extend to their attitude towards others if this
attitude is a rude one. Sometimes we must be prepared to simply accept that our
views and those of others differ and do no more, see practicalethics
. Thirdly I have argued that a lack of associative empathy is one of the
root causes of rudeness. It follows we might combat rudeness by addressing this
lack. Unfortunately doing so is not easy, it can’t be done by simply increasing
awareness or cognition. Michael Slote argues that parental love helps a child
develop associative empathy (1) but even if combatting rudeness by increasing
parental love is possible it will be a slow process.
- Michael Slote,
2014, A Sentimentalist Theory of the
Mind, Oxford, pages 128-134.