Moral Psychology Lab Meeting - Julia Driver, Washington University in St. Louis

Title: Schadenfreude

Abstract: "Schadenfreude" has been defined as "pleasure at the perception of someone else's misfortune" and has generally understood to indicate something vicious about the person experiencing it.  In this paper I attempt to come up with an account of schadenfreude and its success or fittingness conditions.  I also claim that whether it is bad or not will depend on how one views the value or disvalue of pain or ill-being.  Some experiences of schadenfreude are parasitic on reactive attitudes, and I also argue that, as such, schadenfreude and similar emotions are part of our responsibility bookkeeping practices.