ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I analyse critical reactive attitudes to fanaticism as second-order reactive attitudes reacting to a fanatical type of ressentiment. Starting from the observation that critiques of fanaticism typically take intensified forms of condemnation or contempt (in contrast to ordinary critical attitudes like resentment or indignation) I claim that the intensified nature of critical attitudes towards fanaticism results from specific features of fanatical attitudes themselves. I intend to show that the devotion to a fanatical idea tends to override, suppress or transform a whole web of basic interpersonal attitudes, like e.g. compassion, pity, shame, and guilt not only towards out-group members but also towards the fanatics themselves. I analyse the fanatical rejection of basic interpersonal attitudes as a form of ressentiment and I argue that it is fanatical ressentiment that intensified critical reactions to fanaticism react to on a second-order level.
