Critical Concepts

Hypocrisy

We should take care not to confuse two related but distinct senses of the term "hypocrisy."  Let us call them "hypocrisy in the rhetorical sense" and "hypocrisy in the morally bad sense of the term."  This latter is what is generally invoked in ordinary discourse today when we complain that someone is a hypocrite.  The former is more general, and embraces both the cases that fall under the latter and those that we might describe as "morally benign hypocrisy."  In what follows our focus will be on this general sense, which is by itself ethically neutral in its connotations. 

In hypocrisy, as in dramatic irony and verbal irony, there is a discrepancy between what the speaker says and the situation in which he says it.  But the particular nature of this discrepancy differs among these kinds of case.

Unlike verbal irony, hypocritical talk is not a figure of speech.  In hypocrisy the speaker does not intend the hearer to understand the facts of the situation that betray the meaning of what is said.  (We might stretch the sense of the verb "to mean" and say that the speaker means one thing for his hearer, but another for himself.) 

• In verbal irony the speaker intends to be understood as meaning something that contrasts with the literal or usual meaning of what he says. 

• In conscious hypocrisy the speaker intends to be understood as meaning what his utterance would ordinarily and literally mean, even though he is aware of the fact that the situation is at odds with this. 

• In unconscious hypocrisy the speaker also intends to be understood as meaning what his utterance would ordinarily be understood to mean, but is unaware that the situation is at odds with this.

To drive home the idea that verbal irony is not the same thing as conscious hypocrisy, contrast the following situations.

• "Pretty spiffy!" I say to my friend when she appears, tastefully dressed up for an evening out.  No verbal irony or hypocrisy here:  I'm just straightforwardly saying what I mean.

• "Pretty spiffy!" I say, pointing to my friend's car, covered with mud.  He knows I mean "What a mess!"  Verbal irony involves the speaker's intention of being understood to say something at variance with the conventional meaning of what he says. 

• "Pretty spiffy!" I say to my boss, pointing to a tie that he's sporting proudly but that I think is simply ridiculous.  In hypocrisy (as in lying generally) the speaker undertakes to be understood to say something that, privately, he does not believe.  I flatter someone for the wit and sensitivity of his remarks at a funeral, when in fact I think he was tactless and sentimental.  If he takes me to be speaking sarcastically, my ruse has failed, because he has penetrated to my true opinion, which I meant to keep to myself. 

• Of course I could use verbal irony (whether sarcasm, overstatement, or understatement) in the service of hypocrisy.  Example (with sarcasm):  "We're leading a miserable life!" I exclaim to my companions at an elegant banquet, giving them to understand that we're really enjoying a remarkable entertainment.  However, I secretly regard the lot of them as a bunch of spoiled gluttons.

We've said that conscious hypocrisy (in the rhetorical sense of the term) is not necessarily morally censurable hypocrisy, since hypocrisy in this more general sense could instead be morally benign.  To drive this home, contrast the following scenarios.

• Jim's friend introduces him to his daughter, who's waiting for her boyfriend to pick her up for the prom.  She looks, well, just like him:  double chin, eyes too close together, acne on her forehead.  "Isn't she a doll?" he beams.  "She is indeed," Jim replies, wincing at the prospect of adding to the poor child's embarrassment.

• Bill's banker points to his daughter, who's waiting in the next room for her boyfriend to pick her up for the prom.  She looks, well, just like him:  double chin, eyes too close together, acne on her forehead.  "Isn't she a doll?" he beams.  "She is indeed," Bill replies, hoping to butter the fellow up a bit, since he'll be hitting him up for a loan tomorrow, for a vacation to Acapulco, and he's already got his house mortgaged to the max.

• [Here's another example to consider.]

To get an idea of what issues can be at stake in the difference betwee conscious and unconscious hypocrisy, compare the above examples of conscious hypocrisy with what is revealed about Torvald Helmer in the climactic scene of Ibsen's A Doll's House.

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