Ebook: The Beam and the Mote: On Blame, Standing, and Normativity

""Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye" (Matthew 7:3-5), says the Bible. The "porridge-pot calls the kettle black-arse," says the non-religious proverb, making its first known literary appearance in Cervantes' (2008, 736) Don Quixote. Both sayings point to the same deep fact about the nature of blame-i.e., that blame is interpersonal in that there is something problematic about one person blaming another when the blamer's faults are similar (the pot is black too) or even greater (one would rather have a mote than have a beam in one's eye). Such blaming is hypocritical and, typically, we see ourselves as entitled to dismiss any hypocritical blame that is directed at us. In fact, we often react quite strongly to being subjected to hypocritical blame. When we dismiss hypocritical blame, we might not deny that we have done something blameworthy (though, of course, we might). Accordingly, nor need we think that we would be entitled to dismiss blame from those who have a better moral record than our blamer. After all, those who dismiss their hypocritical brother's blame in the biblical saying do have a mote in their eye. Some think this renders our typical responses to hypocritical blame puzzling. If we have done something blameworthy, should not others-even people worse than us-be in a position to blame"--