Abstract

This chapter focuses on the miserly avaricious. It is argued that the miserly avaricious defeat their own purposes. The possession of money, which is supposed to be of such value to them does, on the contrary, lead to frustration. They live in a shrinking world and lose control over their lives, for they are at the mercy of their dominating desire. In all its forms, vicious envy spoils the good it covets. In this, as in other respects, the structural features of this vice resemble those of avarice. As in the case of avarice, the desired good is not the superficially obvious one, namely, others’ and one’s own possessions, respectively. The object of their desire is a more fundamental one, namely the self under a specific description.