Cruelty as a Political Vice

This book examines the manifestation of cruelty as a political vice that is embedded into Western political life. Renée Nicole Souris defends an account of the political vice of cruelty as an attribute that can become embedded in the collective habits of groups and institutions rather than existing solely as a personal attribute of private individuals. She argues that where there is a discernible pattern of political power that disposes collectives toward delight in, or callous indifference toward, the suffering of political "others," then it is reasonable to attribute the political vice of cruelty to the agents of that power, which can include citizens as well as leaders. Ultimately, her book seeks to recast some of the most infamous moral failings in Western political history using the conceptual resources of virtue ethics. In doing so, it exposes how vices can develop and persist in social and political relationships through the dynamics of shared agency, and it proposes new ways of thinking about blameworthiness for collective perpetrators of political cruelties.