Edith Stein on moral self-delusion

She found herself stunned

Edith Stein began her work as a philosopher as an assistant to Edmund Husserl, the founder of phenomenology. Her work, says her entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “contains original approaches to empathy, embodiment, the emotions, personhood, the apprehension of values, collective intentionality, and the nature of the state and social life in general.” She entered the Catholic Church in 1922, became a Carmelite nun in 1933, and died in Auschwitz in 1942. She was canonized in 1998. This is taken from her unfinished autobiography, Life in a Jewish Family: 1891-1916.

Just before she left her home in Breslau for the university in Göttingen, a friend walked her home, which he had never done before.

One we had arrived at my home he said: “Well, I wish you the good fortune of finding in Göttingen people who will satisfy your taste. Here you seem to have become far too critical.”

The words stunned me. I was no longer accustomed to any form of censure. At home hardly anyone dared to criticize me; my friends showed me only affection and admiration. So I had been living in the naive conviction that I was perfect.

This is frequently the case with persons without any faith who live an exalted ethical idealism. Because one is enthused about what is good, one believes oneself to be good.

I had always considered it my privilege to make remarks about everything I found negative, inexorably pointing out other persons’ weaknesses, mistakes, or faults of which I became aware, often using a ridiculing or sarcastic form of voice. There were persons who found me “enchantingly malicious.”

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