Envy is a complex emotion and an often avoided topic.

To avoid bringing it up, envy is sometimes called jealousy, but these are different emotions. Jealousy is the fear of losing something one possesses to another, while envy is a painful awareness of another's advantage, accompanied by a desire to possess that advantage or to see it diminished. It is one of the most complex emotions, because it involves self-deception and justification. The envious person denies recognition to the envied person and even seeks reasons to morally reproach them for having the desired good that the envious do not have.

The Moral Evaluation

Envy is usually classified as a vice, and socially condemned for its corrosive effects on individual character and social harmony. Immanuel Kant counts it among the vices that are "simply the idea of a maximum of evil that goes beyond what is human" and "just the opposite of human love."

The Comparative Dimension

Envy is relational and comparative, meaning that it only arises in contexts where someone measures their worth in relation to another and, from the envious person's point of view, it is sufficient that the envied person is in a slightly better position than them. This is a common situation in highly stratified societies that promote lifestyles, possessions and social positions as markers of success. When artificial inequalities (created by social constructs) become evident, this emotion is exacerbated by the illusion of inferiority.