227:, one of the several ways of defining what psychopathy is, meanness is one of the three components, an index of a person's "callous aggression". It is characterized as callous unemotionality, antagonism, coldheartedness, exploitativeness, remorselessness, and empowerment through cruelty; encompassing destructive acts, the inability to bond with other people, bullying, fight-picking, and other forms of active engagement against other people (in contrast to social withdrawal, which is a passive moving away from other people).
249:
becoming a dominant motif for
Western girlhood", as it fits well with the normative, repressive, boundaries of what is appropriate to modern femininity in work and school, and supports the narrative that empowered, successful, females cannot treat empowerment and success positively, but rather always risk slipping into cruelty. Sociology professor Jessica Ringrose contends that the "mean girl" stereotype from popular culture, as supported by what she criticises as "highly suspect" research in
95:, where each virtue is considered as a midway point on a continuum bracketed by two vices, Aristotle places meanness as one of the two vices that bracket the virtue of liberality/generosity. It is the deficiency of giving to or the excess of taking from others. The other vice is prodigality (excess of giving to or deficiency of taking from), which Aristotle describes as both less common than meanness and less of a vice.
118:) have attempted to reconcile these by explaining that the connotation is that meanness is enslavement by one's material possessions. A slave has no possessions to give and is not the recipient of gifts from others; whereas a free person, in a gift-exchanging culture, can give and take freely. Meanness, therefore, is the vice of a free person behaving, in such a culture, as a slave does.
31:
129:
deficiency (of giving to). Philosophers have attempted to explain this, and characterize what
Aristotle was trying to say as an excess or a deficiency in some other form. Howard J. Curzer takes the view that in fact both were meant, and that it is "misguided" to ask whether Aristotelian meanness is
80:
defined meanness as "want of excellence", "want of rank", "low estate", "lowness of mind", and "sordidness, niggardliness, opposed to liberality or charitableness" pointing out that "meanness is very different from frugality". These, in particular the final one, largely summarize the aspects of the
98:
Meanness can take many forms, as there are several ways in which one can deviate from the liberal/generous virtue. It can be a desire for wealth with insufficient desire to benefit others; or a desire to benefit others suppressed by an excessive desire to keep what money one has; or the desire for
189:
described meanness as "hatever a man does in common with those below him" and that "evinces a temper that is prone to sink rather than rise in the scale of society". He considered meanness to be only relatively bad, as what may constitute meanness for one person may be generosity or prudence for
133:
Curzer also contends that
Aristotle's statement that meanness is worse than prodigality is "a mistake", based upon an erroneous choice of exemplars of prodigality. There are, in Curzer's contention "true prodigals", who are not merely young and foolish (as Aristotle would have prodigals be, and
248:
Many of these aspects of meanness — namely empowerment, bullying, aggression, cruelty, and ruthlessness — have been incorporated in the late 20th and early 21st century popular cultural concept of the "mean girl". Social science professor
Valerie Walkerdine argues that "meanness is
130:
excess or deficiency, because what constitutes excess and what constitutes deficiency "depends upon how the parameters are described" and is "purely a verbal matter". Exactly which vice of the two that brackets a virtue is "excess" and which is "deficiency" is entirely arbitrary.
134:
arguing thereby that youth and foolishness are curable — the former by simple dint of growing old — whereas meanness is not) but "incurably wicked" and thus more proper exemplars of the vice, who demonstrate that it is just as much of a vice as meanness is.
643:
Drislane, Laura E.; Venables, Noah C.; Patrick, Christopher J. (2014). "Aggressive
Externalizing Disorders: Conduct Disorder, Antisocial Personality Disorder, and Psychopathy". In Pietz, Christina A.; Mattson, Curtis A. (eds.).
200:
held meanness to be both the opposite of liberality and generosity. A mean person "chooses a trifling gain to himself rather than the avoidance of disappointment to others", and meanness is not injustice per se.
121:
Another problem that has taxed philosophers analysing
Aristotle is that the expected continuum (on which vices and a virtue lie) is from excess to deficiency; but Aristotle describes meanness as
220:
stated that meanness is "an acquired defect" that is "opposed to kindness". These signify the modern view of meanness, which has concentrated upon cruelty, bullying, and remorselessness.
164:). Whilst a magnificent person is willing to pay for great projects and good causes, a mean person focuses upon penny-pinching and settles for small goals at the expense of great ones.
612:
Drislane, Laura E.; Patrick, Christopher J. (2014). "Antisocial
Personality Disorder, and Psychopathy". In Blaney, Paul H.; Krueger, Robert F.; Millon, Theodore (eds.).
190:
another. Seeking to save or to gain for oneself at the expense of others, in particular with respect to what one can afford to pay, "is denominated a mean temper".
99:
too much wealth. Aristotle said that "meanness we always impute to those who care more than they ought for wealth" and "there seem to be many kinds of meanness".
175:, like Aristotle, opposed meanness and generosity, declaring meanness as an "unmanly and unwomanly vice". He differentiated two forms of meanness:
589:
Patrick, Christopher J. (2014). "Psychological
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53:
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is a personal quality whose classical form, discussed by many from
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Mitchell, Claudia A.; Reid-Walsh, Jacqueline (2007). "meanness".
41:
coined the slogan "Quit Your Meanness" which was put to music by
273:, feeds from psychology and pedagogy back into popular culture.
61:
27:
Personal quality characterized as a vice of "lowness" or cruelty
110:) corresponds with both liberality and freedom. Its opposite,
665:
Girl Culture: Studying girl culture : a readers' guide
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that "n infallible characteristic of meanness is cruelty".
917:
Spectacular Girls: Media Fascination and Celebrity Culture
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The Cosmos of Duty: Henry Sidgwick's Methods of Ethics
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of "lowness", but whose modern form deals more with
235:"Mean girl" redirects here. For the 2004 film, see
183:, which is meanness in things not thus measurable.
978:Essays on Social Subjects from the Saturday Review
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251:developmental psychology
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60:, characterizes it as a
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459:Crabb & Hedley 1839
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266:Queen Bees and Wannabes
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241:. For other uses, see
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838:Crisp, Roger (2015).
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198:The Methods of Ethics
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294:References
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238:Mean Girls
108:eleutheria
35:Revivalist
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261:self-help
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104:ἐλευθερία
85:Aristotle
54:Aristotle
39:Sam Jones
37:preacher
18:Mean girl
760:(eds.).
634:(1770).
288:Kindness
277:See also
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