TL;DR: Envy is the uncomfortable feeling when someone else has something you want, often with a wish to have it yourself or for them to lose it; unlike jealousy, which is about fearing loss, envy centers on comparing yourself to others and doesn’t require a sense of unfairness.
Envy is a complex emotion that arises when a person (the “Subject”) feels distress or pain from noticing that another person or group (the “Rival”) has something desirable, called the “good,” which they themselves lack.
This feeling isn’t just a momentary pang—it involves a combination of thoughts (such as judging oneself against others), internal motivations (urges to gain or outdo), bodily responses, and affective experiences, all bound loosely together as what philosophers term an emotional syndrome.
Central to envy is not only the longing to have what the rival has, but, according to many theories, also the wish that the rival not possess the good, making envy at least partly about wishing for comparative advantage or lessening the rival’s gain, though some thinkers allow for the possibility of wanting the good without ill-will.
Distinct from jealousy, which is about the fear of losing something (like affection from a beloved) to a third party and is focused on the beloved, envy centers on the two-party dynamic: it is about lacking something another has, and the rival is the focus of attention.
There is debate among philosophers about the idea of “benign envy,” where someone is driven to self-improve by observing another’s success but doesn’t desire to see the rival lose their advantage—some argue this is really just admiration or longing, not true envy, while others offer nuanced classifications like “emulative envy” to describe cases of self-betterment motivated by comparison.
Still, some theorists argue that genuine envy always contains a competitive edge, with an underlying desire to level the difference, even if people wouldn’t act on this desire due to moral restraint or personal liking for the rival.
Unlike resentment, which is a moral emotion tied to perceptions of injustice or wrongdoing, envy doesn’t require such judgments; it can occur solely from personal comparisons, no matter how fair the situation. This feature has led to philosophers questioning whether envy is irrational or problematic—especially when it leads people to feel worse off simply because others are better off, even if their own situation is unchanged.
In broader society and political theory, envy is sometimes invoked in critiques of egalitarian justice, with some suggesting that demands for equality are motivated by envy (though this is usually only when people are worse off than others).
Economically, the concept of “envy-free” allocations describes situations where no one prefers another’s bundle of resources to their own, but in this context, “envy” just names a preference rather than the emotional syndrome discussed above.
Overall, the study of envy highlights how central social comparison is to human self-understanding, revealing deep tensions between how people evaluate their well-being both on their own terms and through the lens of others’ successes.
See Also
Online Resources
- Envy / SEP
Please Note: This is my personal summary of the topic, shared both for my own records and in the hope it may be helpful to you. AI was used in parts to assist with the process.