 '''Misanthropy''' is  generalized dislike, distrust, disgust, contempt or hatred of the human species or human nature. A '''misanthrope''' is someone who holds such views or feelings. The word's origin is from Greek words μῖσος (''misos'', &quot;hatred&quot;) and ἄνθρωπος (''anthrōpos'', &quot;man, human being&quot;).  == In Western thought  == ===Literature=== Misanthropy has been ascribed to a number of writers of satire, such as William S. Gilbert (&quot;I hate my fellow-man&quot;). Jonathan Swift is widely believed to be misanthropic (see ''A Tale of a Tub'' and, most especially, Book IV of ''Gulliver's Travels'').  Molière's character Alceste in ''Le Misanthrope'' (1666) states:   ===Philosophy=== In Western philosophy, misanthropy has been connected to isolation from human society. In Plato's ''Phaedo'', Socrates defines the misanthrope in relation to his fellow man: &quot;Misanthropy develops when without art one puts complete trust in somebody thinking the man absolutely true and sound and reliable and then a little later ''discovers'' him to be bad and unreliable...and when it happens to someone often...he ends up...hating everyone.&quot; Misanthropy, then, is presented as the result of thwarted expectations or even excess optimism, since Plato argues that &quot;art&quot; would have allowed the potential misanthrope to recognize that the majority of men are to be found in between good and evil.Stern 95. Aristotle follows a more ontological route: the misanthrope, as an essentially solitary man, is not a man at all: he must be a beast or a god, a view reflected in the Renaissance of misanthropy as a &quot;beast-like state.&quot;  It is important to distinguish between philosophical pessimism and misanthropy. Immanuel Kant said that &quot;Of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing can ever be made,&quot; and yet this was not an expression of the uselessness of mankind itself. Kant further stated that hatred of mankind can take two distinctive forms, aversion from men (Anthropophobia) or enmity towards them.Immanuel Kant, ''Lectures on ethics'', Cambridge University Press, 2001, p. 191 ISBN 0521788048 The condition can arise partly from dislike and partly from ill-will.   Another example of mistaken misanthropy is Jean-Paul Sartre's quote &quot;Hell is other people.&quot; On the face of it, this looks deeply misanthropic, but actually Sartre was making an observation about the tendency of human beings to lack self-knowledge. We tend to project our worst fears, and our most deeply disliked personal characteristics, onto other people, rather than look inside and face them within ourselves. Thus, when we look at other people we often see the worst of what is in our own personality.  The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, on the other hand, was almost certainly as famously misanthropic as his reputation. He wrote that &quot;human existence must be a kind of error.&quot; It should be added, however, that misanthropy does not necessarily equate with an inhumane attitude towards humanity. Schopenhauer concluded, in fact, that ethical treatment of others was the best attitude, for we are all fellow sufferers and all part of the same will-to-live; he also discussed suicide with a sympathetic understanding which was rare in his own time, when it was largely a taboo subject.  Martin Heidegger also showed misanthropy in his concern of the &quot;they&quot; — the tendency of people to conform to one view, which no-one has really thought through, but is just followed because, &quot;they say so&quot;. Unlike Schopenhauer, Heidegger was opposed to any ethics or reason to treat others with respect. Though rare, misanthropy has appeared in forms of popular entertainment.  ===Environmentalism=== Deep ecology, as upheld by thinkers such as Pentti Linkola and Earth First! founder David Foreman, has been criticized as being misanthropical by Murray Bookchin.P. R. Hay, ''Main currents in western environmental thought'', Indiana University Press, 2002, p. 66, ISBN 0253340535  ===Political economy=== Detestation of people, humanity in general may be a reaction to social orders perceived as barbaric, repressive, unfair, or hyper-competitive. In his 1949 article ''Why Socialism?'' Einstein gives the example of a cultured man who states that the destruction of humanity would not be a bad thing.Einstein, Albert. [ ''Why Socialism ?'']. Monthly Review. 50.1. May 1949. End of &amp;para; 6.  ===Psychopathology=== Serial killers and other sociopaths frequently express misanthropic attitudes. Serial murderer Carl Panzram was remembered for his violent and indiscriminate misanthropy. One of his famous quotes was &quot;I wish all mankind had one neck so I could choke it!&quot;.  ==In Persian thought== In early and pre-Islamic philosophy, certain thinkers such as Ibn al-Rawandi, a skeptic of Islam, and Muhammad ibn Zakariya ar-Razi often expressed misanthropic views.  In the Judeo-Islamic philosophies (800–1400), the Jewish philosopher Saadia Gaon, uses the Platonic idea that the self-isolated man is dehumanized by friendlessness to argue against the misanthropy of anchorite asceticism and reclusiveness.  