Topics Ethics

Question What does it mean to be "judgmental"? Is there a way to avoid being judgmental while also acknowledging that people sometimes engage in inexcusable evil?

Accepted:
March 9, 2011

Comments

I don't think there is any clear fixed meaning to "judgmental," as it is used for so many different kinds of cases. Generally, it is applied as a term of reproach; so perhaps we should understand it as applicable to those who pass judgment without good reasons, or in situations where the judgments (presumably negative ones--we don't normally characterize someone as "judgmental" if the judgments they pass are mostly favorable ones!) are made without sufficient social ground for making such judgments. Thosse who engage in "inexcusable evil" certainly merit our negative judgment. But decent and dignified people do not feel the need to pass judgment on each and every case of faux pas or clumsiness they happen to witness. Being "judgmental" seems to go along with failures of various other traits we regard as socially virtuous: modesty, forgiveness, grace, kindness, and generosity. My guess is that every case that really deserves to be called "judgmental" behavior will also be accompanied by some failure in one of these other social virtues.

Making judgments - both insignificant and momentous - is essential for everyday life. But people who use the term as an insult mean something apart from 'using one's faculty of judgment.' To call someone judgmental is to say that one is quick to condemn others, and perhaps enjoys a sense of superiority while doing it.

Meant in this sense, being judgmental is an unfortunate character trait to have. Judgmental people assume a position of moral superiority and deign to pass verdict on the rest of us.

The problem you raise is that sometimes we really are in a position of moral superiority to others. Perhaps being judgmental towards Nazis, for example, is justified. Certainly it is justified if one is a judge at Nuremberg.

But most of us are not judges at Nuremberg. For the most part, judgmental people aren't effective in helping wrong-doers see the errors of their ways. The arrogance of judgmental people obscures the rightness of their ethical stance.

At the core of all ethical systems is the belief that we are all brothers and sisters in a shared struggle to lead good, dignified lives. Some of us stray from that path, becoming horribly lost. But taking a judgmental stance towards them will hardly help them get on the right path. There may be no excuses for true evil, but I hope there can be forgiveness for it.

Question What does it mean to be "judgmental"? Is there a way to avoid being judgmental while also acknowledging that people sometimes engage in inexcusable evil? Accepted:March 9, 2011

Question What does it mean to be "judgmental"? Is there a way to avoid being judgmental while also acknowledging that people sometimes engage in inexcusable evil?

Accepted:
March 9, 2011