Clean Hands Quotes

“Surely the standards for servers are that they should *never* poison customers, not that they should poison them only occasionally, so what could it mean to say that Bridget goes too far? Is it when she checks much more than other servers? Maybe the others are just lax. Is it when she checks so much that she neglects other duties, such as serving her customers quickly? But isn't safety more important than speed? Is it when she creates a personal risk of getting fired? Shouldn't her boss also care about poisoning customers?”
― Jesse S. Summers, Clean Hands: Philosophical Lessons from Scrupulosity

“Scrupulosity has the following characteristic features: (1) perfectionism, (2) chronic doubt, and (3) moral thought-action fusion...

In likelihood thought-action fusion, sufferers believe that their thoughts, merely by occurring, make some bad outcome (such as the act or event that they are imagining) more likely to occur...

In moral thought-action fusion, by contrast, people with Scrupulosity fail to distinguish doing something immoral from thinking about doing something immoral, and hence, treat thoughts as equivalent (or close) in moral status to physical actions. They see having unacceptable thoughts, even if they are uncontrollable and intrusive thoughts, as (almost) as bad as having an immoral intention, making an immoral attempt, or even actually performing an immoral action.”
― Jesse S. Summers, Clean Hands: Philosophical Lessons from Scrupulosity