When talking about malice, Adams claims that it would be "neither easy nor profitable to assign comparative degrees of wickedness" (42). While I agree that it would not be an easy task to assign comparative degrees to extreme wickedness, I do think it would be profitable when discussing the vice of malice.
Adams makes the distinction between principle and emotional malice. These two different forms seem to create a distinction in the degree of the vice. Principle malice is planned and intentional whereas emotional malice is the result of emotions. When men plan to intentionally hurt, they are using their mind and intellect to create pain and suffering for another. Because of this, principle malice seems more wicked than emotional malice, where one does not plan cruelty for another. The malice is a result of emotions which are often times irrational and seem to be out of our control. For example it would seem more wicked for a man to plan to kill another by studying that man's routine, learning how to enter his house at night, etc. than a man killing another as a result of an emotional hatred.
Adams also claims that persisting malice is always a vice. Things which are planned are more stable and persisting than emotions. And because of that, it was seem that principle malice is always a vice whereas emotional malice may not be, if the feelings and emotions were not persistent.
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I disagree from Adams standpoint and i feel that he would feel the same way. I believe the reason that he states that there is no value in assiging degrees of wickedness he is stating that any form of wickedness should be avoided and analysing it any further is a distraction from the more important virtue. Even the thought of quantifying vice would bring a person closer to rationalizing vice and thus causing questionably moral behavior. Even if a person had only the intention of understanding vice as a means of persuing virtue they would have to develop a familiararity with vice.
Beyond that, i dont believe that there can be any merit on quantifying vice as there is no reason, from adams perspective, to take a part in vice in any way. ergo quantifying vice can only end in justification of such.
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