Why is contempt seen as potentially lacking in the respect for persons and therefore prima facie subject to negative moral evaluation? This paper starts by looking at a distinctive feature of contempt in the context of thick relationships, such as those of friendship, close professional collaboration, or romantic love: there is an irreversibility effect attached to the experience of contempt. Once contempt occurs in a thick relationship, it seems very difficult to return to non-contemptuous reactive attitudes. The second part argues that the irreversibility effect is due to the fact that contempt is an affective attitude which tends to invisibilize the person who is the object of contempt. The tendency to invisibilize is inscribed in the intentional structure of contempt as well as in its motivational dimension. The final part explores some consequences of this hypothesis, and in particular argues that it also explains why contempt motivated by abject wrongdoing, as opposed to resentment, anger, or hatred, tends to block any process of forgiveness.

中文翻译：

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蔑视与隐形

为什么蔑视被视为潜在地缺乏对人的尊重，因此表面上会受到负面的道德评价？本文首先探讨了在诸如友谊、密切的职业合作或浪漫爱情等深厚关系背景下的蔑视的一个显着特征：蔑视的经历具有不可逆转的效应。一旦在深厚的关系中出现蔑视，似乎就很难恢复到非蔑视的反应态度。第二部分认为，不可逆转效应是由于蔑视是一种情感态度，它往往会使蔑视对象的人变得不可见。隐形的倾向铭刻在蔑视的意图结构及其动机维度中。最后一部分探讨了这一假设的一些后果，特别认为它也解释了为什么由卑鄙的错误行为引发的蔑视，而不是怨恨、愤怒或仇恨，往往会阻碍任何宽恕的过程。