Dirty hands
Encyclopedia
Dirty hands is a metaphor
used in moral and political philosophy
and everyday conversation to symbolize the sullying of one's moral standing by dealing with unsavory matters. The idea conveyed is that in handling messy situations, it is impossible to come away clean.
The expression comes from Jean-Paul Sartre
's 1948 play Dirty Hands
, in which Hoederer speaks of having hands dirty up to his elbows, and asks, "So what? Do you think one can govern innocently?" The play describes actions that violate moral principles, but which are purportedly carried out in the interests of the greater good.
A related saying is "sometimes you have to get your hands dirty," meaning detachment from difficult situations is not always possible. There is also the saying that someone "has blood on their hands", implicating or accusing a person of being an enabler or passive participant in wrongdoing, and that a person "washes one's hands of" something, meaning a person disavows responsibility for something.
Sissela Bok writes that Machiavelli maintains in The Prince
that rulers who cling to moral principles in order to avoid dirty hands, no matter the cost, are weak and invariably end up defeated, a view opposed by Erasmus and Kant
.
Metaphor
A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
used in moral and political philosophy
Political philosophy
Political philosophy is the study of such topics as liberty, justice, property, rights, law, and the enforcement of a legal code by authority: what they are, why they are needed, what, if anything, makes a government legitimate, what rights and freedoms it should protect and why, what form it...
and everyday conversation to symbolize the sullying of one's moral standing by dealing with unsavory matters. The idea conveyed is that in handling messy situations, it is impossible to come away clean.
The expression comes from Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century French philosophy, particularly Marxism, and was one of the key figures in literary...
's 1948 play Dirty Hands
Dirty hands
Dirty hands is a metaphor used in moral and political philosophy and everyday conversation to symbolize the sullying of one's moral standing by dealing with unsavory matters...
, in which Hoederer speaks of having hands dirty up to his elbows, and asks, "So what? Do you think one can govern innocently?" The play describes actions that violate moral principles, but which are purportedly carried out in the interests of the greater good.
A related saying is "sometimes you have to get your hands dirty," meaning detachment from difficult situations is not always possible. There is also the saying that someone "has blood on their hands", implicating or accusing a person of being an enabler or passive participant in wrongdoing, and that a person "washes one's hands of" something, meaning a person disavows responsibility for something.
Sissela Bok writes that Machiavelli maintains in The Prince
The Prince
The Prince is a political treatise by the Italian diplomat, historian and political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli. From correspondence a version appears to have been distributed in 1513, using a Latin title, De Principatibus . But the printed version was not published until 1532, five years after...
that rulers who cling to moral principles in order to avoid dirty hands, no matter the cost, are weak and invariably end up defeated, a view opposed by Erasmus and Kant
KANT
KANT is a computer algebra system for mathematicians interested in algebraic number theory, performing sophisticated computations in algebraic number fields, in global function fields, and in local fields. KASH is the associated command line interface...
.