TEMERARIOUS JUDGMENT. -
It is thinking evil of others without sufficient reason. It therefore includes two elements: a) the firm adherence of the mind to a proposition unfavorable to others; b) the lack of a motive that authorizes doing so. By the first element it is opposed to doubt and to temerarious suspicion; doubt in fact (at least in the sense customary among the ancients) entails suspension of assent; suspicion implies a beginning of adherence or at most an adherence that is not firm. By the second element the t. j. is distinguished from the non-t. j.
Psychologically the t. j. is born from the tendency to precipitancy and to malice that are found in every man and that strongly incline one to give judgments beyond the objectively ascertained data. Both tendencies can be enormously strengthened by passion and by interest, especially when it is a matter of concrete and complex subjects. For this reason t. j.s are very frequent in politics and in religion. Of all this the well-known Latin sayings "ab uno disce omnes", "post hoc ergo propter hoc", etc., are already an expression.
Natural and Christian morality condemn the t. j. First of all because they dissuade one in general from judging. They point out that the morality of an act depends above all on the degree of advertence and freedom with which the object has been willed; since all this is difficult to measure, especially by outsiders, it is necessary that especially these refrain as much as possible from formulating judgments. Scripture also insists in this sense (v., for example, Mt. 7, 1; Lk. 6, 37; Rom. 14, 4; I Cor. 4, 5; I Cor. 4, 5, etc.). To this general motive they add the obligation, deriving from love, to interpret the conduct of others well as far as possible, according to what is said in I Cor. 13 ("charitas... non cogitat malum"), and the obligation, deriving from justice, not to judge beyond what is established. In-
ally they observe that judgments easily tend to find their exterior expression, thus creating the danger of defaming.
Bibliography2 works
Giovanni Battista Guzzetti