Grasp the Nettle

A common argument is that feeling bad is a warning sign of moral error, without which you might not be aware something is wrong. This is often described as a “twinge of conscience” –

Imagine two individuals. One is a Dedicated Nazi, who is sure Jews are vermin. The other is a Conflicted Nazi, who has some doubts.

Suppose the Dedicated Nazi experiences some negative emotions — maybe he feels guilty about not killing enough Jews. In thinking about this, he realizes that he has a slight aversion to blood which is hindering his jew-murdering. His guilt helps him see this conflict in his value system, and his values cause him to work towards the elimination of the conflict, and thus, greater and more efficient immorality. Some might argue that a different result might occur — perhaps the aversion to blood triggers a profound reflection on the value of human life and the evils of being a Nazi. This might occur. But the emotions themselves don’t really have a role other than pointing out the existence of a conflict — whether the end result is an adoption of better moral values, worse ones, or just a continuance of the conflicted state is entirely dependent on the moral ideas the person has.

Suppose the Conflicted Nazi also has an aversion to blood. He has better ideas, so in his thinking about the issue, he’s more likely to take seriously the conjecture that his aversion to blood is somehow connected to the inhumane treatment of Jews under the Nazi regime. Maybe he takes this idea seriously. “Ah-ha,” you say, “guilt has led someone to moral truth.” Maybe. Or maybe there is some other overriding idea with an emotional manifestation — guilt at the thought of disappointing his proud Nazi parents, or of failing the State, or whatever — that causes the Nazi to suppress his thoughts and try and be more Dedicated. With practice, he succeeds. This is possible as well. In either case, guilt again has merely pointed out the conflict in values; it’s the quality of ideas and the courageous dedication to rationality that decide the battle for the person’s soul.

From this it seems that guilt is unproductive and useless. At best, it’s like a radar system that doesn’t distinguish between friendly and enemy craft — it flags where interesting stuff might be, but doesn’t help you at all in figuring out what to do with it.