Editing Misanthropy (section)

== Forms of human flaws ==
A core aspect of misanthropy is that its negative attitude toward humanity is based on human flaws.{{sfn|Cooper|2018|pp=7, 47–8}}{{sfn|Kidd|2020b}} Various misanthropes have provided extensive lists of flaws, including cruelty, greed, selfishness, wastefulness, dogmatism, self-deception, and insensitivity to beauty.{{sfn|Cooper|2018|pp=3, 8, 48}}{{sfn|Benatar|2015|pp=39–42}}{{sfn|Kidd|2020b}} These flaws can be categorized in many ways. It is often held that moral flaws constitute the most serious case.{{sfn|Kidd|2022|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=--xZEAAAQBAJ 75–99]|loc=4. Misanthropy and the Hatred of Humanity}}{{sfn|Benatar|2015|pp=34–36, 55}} Other flaws discussed in the contemporary literature include intellectual flaws, aesthetic flaws, and spiritual flaws.{{sfn|Cooper|2018|pp=7, 13, 48}}{{sfn|Kidd|2022|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=--xZEAAAQBAJ 75–99]|loc=4. Misanthropy and the Hatred of Humanity}}

[[File:Mass Grave at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp - Fritz Klein - IWM BU4260.jpg|thumb|alt=Photo of a mass grave at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp|Moral flaws of human beings are exemplified in harm done to humans by other humans, like the mass killings during the Holocaust.]]
Moral flaws are usually understood as tendencies to violate moral norms or as mistaken attitudes toward what is the good.{{sfn|Hurka|2020|loc=[https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/thematic/virtues-and-vices/v-2 Virtues and vices]}}{{sfn|Hurka|2001|pp=[https://philpapers.org/rec/THOVAH 195–212]}} They include cruelty, indifference to the suffering of others, selfishness, moral laziness,  cowardice, injustice, greed, and ingratitude. The harm done because of these flaws can be divided into three categories: harm done directly to humans, harm done directly to other animals, and harm done indirectly to both humans and other animals by harming the environment. Examples of these categories include the [[The Holocaust|Holocaust]], [[Intensive animal farming|factory farming]] of livestock, and pollution causing [[climate change]].{{sfn|Benatar|2015|pp=39–48}}{{sfn|Kidd|2022|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=--xZEAAAQBAJ 75–99]|loc=4. Misanthropy and the Hatred of Humanity}}{{sfn|Svoboda|2022|pp=4–5}} In this regard, it is not just relevant that human beings cause these forms of harm but also that they are morally responsible for them. This is based on the idea that they can understand the consequences of their actions and could act differently. However, they decide not to, for example, because they ignore the long-term well-being of others in order to get short-term personal benefits.{{sfn|Svoboda|2022|pp=3, 5}}

Intellectual flaws concern cognitive capacities. They can be defined as what leads to false beliefs, what obstructs [[knowledge]], or what violates the demands of [[rationality]]. They include intellectual vices, like arrogance, wishful thinking, and dogmatism. Further examples are stupidity, gullibility, and [[cognitive biases]], like the [[confirmation bias]], the [[self-serving bias]], the [[hindsight bias]], and the [[anchoring bias]].{{sfn|Madison|2017|pp=[https://philpapers.org/rec/MADOTN 1–6]}}{{sfn|Litvak|Lerner|2009|pp=89–90|loc=cognitive bias}}{{sfn|Hurka|2020|loc=[https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/thematic/virtues-and-vices/v-2 Virtues and vices]}} Intellectual flaws can work in tandem with all kinds of vices: they may deceive someone about having a vice. This prevents the affected person from addressing it and improving themselves, for instance, by being mindless and failing to recognize it. They also include forms of self-deceit, wilful ignorance, and being in denial about something.{{sfn|Cooper|2018|pp=50–51}}{{sfn|Svoboda|2022|p=18}} Similar considerations have prompted some traditions to see intellectual failings, like ignorance, as the root of all evil.{{sfn|Hackforth|1946|pp=[https://philpapers.org/rec/HACMEA 118–]}}{{sfn|Menon|2023}}{{sfn|Mahathera|1964|loc=[https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/nyanatiloka/wheel394.html#ch2 II. Kamma and Rebirth]}}

''Aesthetic flaws'' are usually not given the same importance as moral and intellectual flaws, but they also carry some weight for misanthropic considerations. These flaws relate to [[beauty]] and [[ugliness]]. They concern ugly aspects of human life itself, like defecation and aging. Other examples are ugliness caused by human activities, like pollution and litter, and inappropriate attitudes toward aesthetic aspects, like being insensitive to beauty.{{sfn|Benatar|2015|pp=56–58}}{{sfn|Cooper|2018|pp=7, 48}}{{sfn|Kidd|2022|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=--xZEAAAQBAJ 75–99]|loc=4. Misanthropy and the Hatred of Humanity}}