Envy and resentment

La Caze on Envy and Resentment

“…Abstract Marguerite La Caze has recently published a stimulating analysis of the emotions of envy and resentment in which she argues that to envy others for a benefit they have received or to resent them for such a reason can be ethically acceptable in cases where that benefit has been unjustly obtained (La Caze, 2001). I question this on the ground that the judgement that the benefit has been unjustly obtained plays a more complex role in the structure of envy and resentment than La Caze allows and should alter the nature of the feeling that is evoked.…”

Invideo et Amo: on Envying the Beloved

“…A few defend envy as morally appropriate in some cases (e.g. La Caze 2001, who defends the notion of "righteous envy"-but see Ben-ze'ev 2002 for a critique of it) or at least excusable (e.g. Rawls 1971), or as morally valuable (Thomason 2015).…”

Envy and Jealousy in Classical Athens

“…109 See n.99 above. La Caze (2001) 35-6 too makes the same error with a sense of injustice as she does with 'moral envy'. 110 R.H. Smith does not appear to be aware of the distinction between transmutation and misrepresentation.…”

“…for a contrary view, though he confuses the personal sense of moral outrage that is often part of envy with disinterested indignation. La Caze (2001) 35 also seems to believe that envy can be moral, but that is because she distinguishes indignation concerning a good we want for ourselves from indignation concerning a good we do not, and calls the former 'moral envy' -I cannot see any justification for this distinction; Ben-Ze'ev (2002) also argues that La Caze is mistaken.…”

“…I generally prefer to use 'indignation', as 'resentment' has occasionally been used when the moral emotion 'indignation' and the immoral one 'envy' have been conflated (as I intentionally sometimes use 'resentment' in ch.5, ch.6, for reasons that will become clear there) -e.g. La Caze (2001); cf. see Van Hooft (2002) 146.…”