Judging Others: Hypocrisy and Virtue

In the quiet moments when we judge our neighbors—their noisy gatherings, unconventional lifestyles, or moral decisions—we come face to face with the essence of human discernment. These everyday evaluations aren’t just casual opinions; they probe deeper into intrinsic ethics: What makes an action truly “wrong”? And who gets to decide?

We often preface our opinions with “I don’t mean to judge” to soften the blow—yet these moments reveal our innate drive to distinguish good from bad, helpful from harmful. This circle explores not just the surface-level disclaimers, but the deeper essence of judgment itself: its role in cognition, its ties to ethics, and its ripple effects on community dynamics. Drawing from philosophy and psychology, we’ll ask whether judgment is a tool for survival—or a barrier to empathy.

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Core Questions

1. What exactly is judgment?
2. Is judgment distinct from evaluation, or are they two sides of the same cognitive coin?
3. In what ways does judgment function as a survival mechanism in social environments?
4. Why do ancient wisdom traditions—like Stoicism, Eastern teachings, and the Bible—warn us against judgment?

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Structure

• First 15 minutes: Coffee + casual social time
• 75–90 minutes: Socratic-style group conversation (no lectures, just inquiry)
• Final 10–15 minutes (optional): Open hangout, personal conversations, community connection

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Optional Reading

• Heuristics and Biases: The Psychology of Intuitive Judgment by Thomas Gilovich
  Explores the cognitive shortcuts and distortions that shape our everyday judgments.
• The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt
  Unpacks the intuitive roots of morality and why our judgments often divide us.
• Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics (sections on moral virtue and judgment)
  Foundational reflections on virtue, discernment, and ethical living.
• Matthew 7:1–5
  A scriptural warning against hypocritical judgment, urging self-examination first.

> “Judge a tree by its fruit, not by its leaves.”
> — Euripides