Would reading true crime be a sin of curiositas

[Pieman333272]

curiositas is, as understood by Aquinas, a vice where one seeks useless and profane knowledge. Would reading true crime books fall under this?

 

[DexUK]

I don’t think reading about real events is useless, seeing as in your example you’re educating yourself about how crimes are solved, the futility of sin, etc. It’s worth knowing.

The vice you refer to would be prurient interest in matters which were not healthy for you to know or which were none of your business.

 

[DaveBj]

I don’t think reading about real events is useless, seeing as in your example you’re educating yourself about how crimes are solved, the futility of sin, etc. It’s worth knowing.

The vice you refer to would be prurient interest in matters which were not healthy for you to know or which were none of your business.

I was going to post something like this, but Dex said it for me. If you’re learning something useful, like how to protect yourself against criminals like those in the stories, you’re not sinning.

 

[triumphguy]

Reading the novels of Aleister Crowley, or the Story of O, or even Nabukov’s Lolita would probably register as the sin of curiositas.

 

[tafan]

I like this question a lot, not because of the action example, ie true crime. But because it opens up an important part of moral theology that is rarely addressed.

Aquinas gives the following reasons why the pursuit or study of knowledge may be a sin
He distinguishes between knowledge of truth and the pursuit of knowledge:

The Knowledge of a truth may be evil if 1) one takes pride in that knowledge 2) on uses the knowledge in evil ways.

The pursuit of knowledge may be sinful obviously if the desire is for pride of the knowledge or one is pursuing it in order to sin.

There are also 4 ways in which type of studone studies can be sinful

1. One is studying something which is getting in the way of another study which is more profitable and one has an obligation to study
2. One studies via a man that it is unlawful to be taught, eg study of the occult by an occultist
3. One studies about creatures without referring the studies to the its due end, God
4. One studies to know the truth beyond his capacity to know, which will likely lead one into error.

My interpretation of :
newadvent.org/summa/3167.htm#article2

So it would be impossible to answer the specific question by the OP without understanding his motives or the topic (and I don’t know for sure what he means by true crime).

 

[Tarpeian_Rock]

I like this question a lot, not because of the action example, ie true crime. But because it opens up an important part of moral theology that is rarely addressed.

Aquinas gives the following reasons why the pursuit or study of knowledge may be a sin
He distinguishes between knowledge of truth and the pursuit of knowledge:

The Knowledge of a truth may be evil if 1) one takes pride in that knowledge 2) on uses the knowledge in evil ways.

The pursuit of knowledge may be sinful obviously if the desire is for pride of the knowledge or one is pursuing it in order to sin.

There are also 4 ways in which type of studone studies can be sinful

1. One is studying something which is getting in the way of another study which is more profitable and one has an obligation to study
2. One studies via a man that it is unlawful to be taught, eg study of the occult by an occultist
3. One studies about creatures without referring the studies to the its due end, God
4. One studies to know the truth beyond his capacity to know, which will likely lead one into error.

My interpretation of :
newadvent.org/summa/3167.htm#article2

So it would be impossible to answer the specific question by the OP without understanding his motives or the topic (and I don’t know for sure what he means by true crime).

Interesting question; I was unaware of this particular sin. Based on your obvious knowledge, a couple of questions:

– Where would “recreational reading” fall in terms of this issue? Say someone was fascinated by a historical incident - ex: the sinking of the Titanic. This person reads everything they can about the topic, buys a number of books. Could it be argued that doing so is of questionable morality inasmuch as the knowledge gained is of no practical value, acquiring such knowledge might tempt the reader to pride and boasting of what he knows – and that the time spent should have been devoted to spiritual reading instead?

– What about reading fiction? One could argue that people in a work of fiction don’t and have never existed, were therefore not created by God, and thus lack a “due end” (per your #3) of God?

My personal belief is that neither of these is morally problemmatic - in moderation, as everything must be - but now I wonder if I have a moral blind spot on this.

 

[tafan]

Interesting question; I was unaware of this particular sin. Based on your obvious knowledge, a couple of questions:

– Where would “recreational reading” fall in terms of this issue? Say someone was fascinated by a historical incident - ex: the sinking of the Titanic. This person reads everything they can about the topic, buys a number of books. Could it be argued that doing so is of questionable morality inasmuch as the knowledge gained is of no practical value, acquiring such knowledge might tempt the reader to pride and boasting of what he knows – and that the time spent should have been devoted to spiritual reading instead?

– What about reading fiction? One could argue that people in a work of fiction don’t and have never existed, were therefore not created by God, and thus lack a “due end” (per your #3) of God?

My personal belief is that neither of these is morally problemmatic - in moderation, as everything must be - but now I wonder if I have a moral blind spot on this.

There is no sin in recreational reading per se. But yes, if it causes pride or the time involved should have been devoted to other more essential reading, such as spiritual, that would fall exactly into Aquina’s first point. But with proper time management, there is no reason why it cannot be done morally (I certainly hope so, as I do a lot of it).

Reading fiction, I do not follow that argument you made at all. It is a misreading of Aquinas’ point about due end. Maybe my wording was not clear, he did not say we could only study about God’s creations, only that when we do study God’s creations we recogonize and take into account that is what we are doing (probably even a worse explanation). And, BTW, fiction serves a very good purpose in the pursuit of knowledge; I can think of a lot of great works of literature which are fabulously benefitial to read.

 

[pinctor]

It occurs to me that addiction to pornography could be categorised as curiosity.
Any comments?

 

[DaveBj]

It occurs to me that addiction to pornography could be categorised as curiosity.
Any comments?

The first look into pornography could be categorized as curiousity. After that – uh-uh.

 

[tafan]

It occurs to me that addiction to pornography could be categorised as curiosity.
Any comments?

That would be just one of its many evils.