In Defense of Double Standards

Double-standards are often considered a bane of our society, the realm of the unthinking, the hypocritical, the illogical, and are a generally unfashionable thing to practice in good faith when dealing with others. Yet, double standards are a necessary component of a happy life, and philosophy suggests that our gut intuitions about them are flat-out wrong.

While double-standards may be the standard for compulsively bad behavior, they aren’t always uncalled for, and sometimes fairness can leave us with a lot of headaches. Like I always say, fairness is the surest way to make sure that everyone ends up unhappy.

More often than not this is the case, no matter how much we wish to disbelieve it, often because we’re so used to looking for hypocrisy to supposedly “win” arguments, that we’ve trained ourselves to use reductionism all the time, and reductionism quite often fails us in some pretty major ways.

A double standard is when one rule or code of conduct applies to one person or group of people but not another, holding one set of standards for one person, one set of standards for another, so running with that definition, here’s my defense of the application of the double standard under the circumstances in which it’s appropriate.

Note: In no way does this apply to the law, I’m an avid believer that the law should be equally applicable to everyone, as should all of our institutions really.

Utilitarianism

So, what happens when a double-standard creates the maximum amount of happiness for everyone involved? Should it be shunned? I think not.

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