Martha C. Nussbaum is Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago.
Martha Nussbaum has been a productive and creative commentator on
the questions raised by A Theory of Justice, and her book Political
Emotions is a long and thoughtful discussion of one of them: How
can we engage the citizens emotions on behalf of a more just, more
inclusive, gentler, and more imaginative society? Nussbaum takes
Rawls s account of justice as her starting point, but she greatly
extends its range. She wants to turn away from hypothetical and
bloodless contractors behind the veil of ignorance to focus on our
actual flesh-and-blood selves.--Alan Ryan"New York Review of Books"
(10/09/2014)"
Martha Nussbaum rises above all the disciplinary boundaries. This
wise and engaging study of what patriotism is and how to cultivate
it is written by a philosopher, a political theorist, a
psychologist, a literary critic, and a historian--all of them at
their best and all of them one amazing person.
--Michael Walzer, Institute for Advanced Study
Martha Nussbaum s is one of the most influential and innovative
voices in modern philosophy. Over the past four decades, a steady
stream of books and articles has issued from her prodigious mind.
She stands out among her contemporaries for insisting that
philosophy must be rigorous and, above all, useful The book
demonstrates how people of different identities can be brought
together around a common set of values and political principles
through the power of art and symbol As a culmination of her
monumental contribution to academia, in Political Emotions she has
produced an incandescent work that will not only be an inspiration
to scholars and lay readers alike, but be a beacon for societies
that aspire to justice and goodness.--Govindan Nair"The Hindu"
(11/26/2013)"
Nussbaum [is] one of the finest theorists on law and ethics Her
journey is a tour de force that travels through Greek and Indian
epics, the music of Mozart in The marriage of Figaro, the poems of
Rabindranath Tagore and Walt Whitman, the rhetorical speeches of
Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., the
writings of John Stuart Mill, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, B.R. Ambedkar,
Auguste Comte and John Rawls to make a case for establishing just
societies by foregrounding emotions that can be developed through
critical reasoning Then she, with incisive brilliance, investigates
three emotions that pose special problems for compassionate
citizenship: fear, envy and shame and also explain that some
societies instead of combating them make the situation worse Her
magnum opus.--A. S. Panneerselvan"The Hindu" (10/28/2013)"
Political Emotions is a remarkable synthesis of two of the most
distinctive strands of Nussbaum's thought--a conception of the
emotions as essential to our understanding of the world and a
political liberalism attuned to the fostering of human capacities.
Readers will not fail to be enlightened and moved.--Charles
Larmore, author of The Autonomy of Morality
Political Emotions is an important work, and Nussbaum has created
valuable space for love and human imperfection to be weighed more
heavily in the search for justice.--Geraldine Van Bueren"Times
Higher Education" (11/07/2013)
[Nussbaum] maps out the routes by which men and women who begin in
self interest and ingrained prejudice can build a society in which
what she calls public emotions operate to enlarge the individual s
circle of concern Those who would extend the sympathy individuals
feel to include fellow citizens of whatever views, ethnicity,
ability or disability must create stable structures of concern that
extend compassion broadly. Those structures cannot be exclusively
rational and philosophical--as they tend to be in the work of John
Rawls and other Kantian liberals--but must, says Nussbaum, be
political in the sense that they find expression in the visible
machinery of public life It is one of the virtues of Nussbaum s
book that she neither shrinks from sentimentality (how could she,
given her title and subtitle?) nor fears being judged
philosophically unsophisticated.--Stanley Fish"New York Times"
(10/14/2013)"
[Nussbaum] reinstates the role of emotion in politics and draws
attention to and rejects any kind of false emotionalism vis-a-vis
nationalism. She examines how figures like Rabindranath Tagore and
B. R. Ambedkar, through their emotional appeal on relevant issues,
were able to build the right kind of nationalism. In the very
contemporary context of Hindutva and its very particular link to
patriotism, I would recommend this book to everyone.--Indira
Jaising"Outlook India" (01/13/2014)"
Continuing her philosophical inquiry into both emotions and social
justice, Nussbaum now makes the case for love, arguing that
emotions rooted in love can foster commitment to shared goals and
keep fear, envy and disgust at bay To sustain democratic
institutions, Nussbaum claims, a liberal society should cultivate
the emotions that underpin imagination and sympathy for others, and
the way to do this is through education and the arts. Imaginative
capacities will be developed very early in the family, and should
be furthered via art, poetry, music and literature. These skills
enable us to see each person s fate in every other s, and to
picture it vividly as an aspect of our own. For Nussbaum, the
liberal tradition should not cede emotion to anti-liberal forces
(fascism, for example, was particularly good at using emotions for
political ends). But all political principles need a proper
emotional basis to ensure their stability over time, and all decent
societies need to guard against division by cultivating appropriate
sentiments of sympathy and love. This is why political emotions,
narrative imagination, and love matter for justice.--Marina
Gerner"Times Literary Supplement" (02/28/2014)"
In her sweeping panorama of society and culture, Nussbaum
skillfully and flexibly uses her understanding of public emotions
to produce a book of considerable wisdom and merit. Her study is
anchored in a well-rounded view of a complex but largely unexplored
theme in the West as well as in South Asia.--Mushirul Hasan, author
of Faith and Freedom: Gandhi in History
Justice is hard. It demands our devotion as well as our
understanding. For that reason, it must grip our emotions. We must
feel its absence and its presence with the depth of feeling that we
associate with love. That is the compelling message in Martha
Nussbaum's remarkable--and remarkably original--account of
political emotions. She explores the place of love in a decent
society that aspires to be just. And she explains--with great
intellectual and emotional force--how we can cultivate a political
love with the kind of complexity that does justice to our
humanity.
--Joshua Cohen, author of The Arc of the Moral Universe and Other
Essays
Reading [Political Emotions] has reinforced, but more importantly
broadened, my understanding of love s significance in political
life and how it can be fostered there I find much political wisdom
in Nussbaum s book.--Walter Moss"LA Progressive" (11/19/2013)"
There s no more interesting or persuasive writer on the wider and
connected subjects of emotions and social justice than Martha
Nussbaum Here she brings together strands that go back to her own
The Fragility Of Goodness (1986), and in the process delivers a
book as important in its way as John Rawls s definitive but
slightly bloodless A Theory of Justice. Here, she draws on
aesthetics as well as philosophy to make her point It s a great
book, though, and goes straight on the shelf beside John Rawls.
Political morality for the new age.--Brian Morton"Glasgow Herald"
(11/02/2013)"
This volume is impressive for its breadth of references in liberal
political philosophy to literature and art theory, but all the more
impressive for the care and enthusiasm expressed for the subject
matter. The heart of the book, and what makes it a rather novel
contribution, is Nussbaum s attention to the psychology of
emotions, particularly in how she draws upon the lessons of
attachment theory to inspire lessons for building a caring, loving
society and a rich notion of political justice Political Emotions
is an exciting contribution to liberal political theory. Nussbaum s
recent forays in bridging political philosophy with attention to
aesthetic affect, emotion and attachment have genuinely enriched
the terrain of liberal theory. Hopefully the discussions Nussbaum
introduces here will help to enrich our collective public life as
well.--Michael Larson"Metapsychology" (11/19/2013)"
Martha Nussbaum rises above all the disciplinary boundaries. This
wise and engaging study of what patriotism is and how to cultivate
it is written by a philosopher, a political theorist, a
psychologist, a literary critic, and a historian--all of them at
their best and all of them one amazing person.
--Michael Walzer, Institute for Advanced Study
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