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34 J. Value Inquiry 61 (2000)
Why Is Revenge Wrong?

handle is hein.journals/jrnlvi34 and id is 61 raw text is: kA The Journal of Value Inquiry 34: 61-69, 2000. 61 © 2000 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands. Why Is Revenge Wrong? SUZANNE UNIACKE Philosophy Program, University of Wollongong, Wollongong 2522, New South Wales, Australia 1. Considerations of Revenge Revenge has roused sporadic philosophical interest in recent years but the nature and morality of revenge have received surprisingly little systematic attention in western philosophy. Many individual and collective actions are motivated by the desire for revenge. The significance of revenge in human affairs is reflected in its persistence as literary theme from Aeschylus to the present. Contemporary films such as Presumed Innocent and FatalAttraction, and novels such as The Life and Loves of a She-Devil, are tales of relentless revenge which might be said to represent the adage Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Why certain types of acts, such as killing or interfering with the autonomy of innocent people, are wrong can be philosophically important even when there is strong general intuitive agreement that such acts are indeed wrong. But the question Why is revenge wrong? is also philosophically complex in a number of respects. We can recognise that the question is elliptical. We are asking how and why the wrongfulness of an act stems from its having a particular motive, namely the desire for revenge. Why is an act of retaliation wrongful because it is an act of revenge as opposed, say, to being aimed at self-defense? The question is complicated by what we may provisionally call our moral ambivalence toward revenge. On the one hand, to call an act an act of revenge is typically a negative characterization, the attribution of a bad or an unseemly motive. As a rationale of action, revenge is often considered petty, a poor delight of feeble minds, something our higher nature should rise above. Revenge is also widely regarded as morally improper. Some forms of revenge, such as so-called revenge suicides which are intended to destroy the happiness of another person, are generally considered morally shocking, sometimes despicable. However, alongside a considerable range of negative evaluations there are countervailing considerations. Acts of revenge can be sources of pride and even of boasting, unlike acts motivated by, say, envy or spite which are

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