Political Emotions: Towards a Decent Public Sphere

Description

This compelling new book engages leading theorists to consider how cultivating emotions can impact on social justice. Although the presence of political emotions can appear counterproductive to stability and peace, there is an increasing recognition that emotions can be harnessed to empower community cohesion and social justice. Covering such key issues as adaptive preferences, capabilities, civil religion, compassion, conscience, dignity, feminism, imagination, multicultural citizenship, perfectionism, political liberalism, public sentiments, sympathy, Political Emotions challenges readers to explore the role emotions can and should play in our modern society – and at a time when new ideas about how to foster a decent public sphere and overcome intolerance are urgently needed. Drawing particularly on the work of Martha C. Nussbaum, and including a chapter giving her personal response to the issues raised in the individual essays, this is a fascinating read for all of those interested in social and political philosophy today. Preface Acknowledgement Contents Notes on Contributors Introduction 1 Why Emotions Matter 2 Structure of the Book 3 Conclusion References Political Objectivity 1 I 2 II 3 III 4 IV 5 V 6 VI References Envy as a Civic Emotion 1 The Problem of Envy in A Theory of Justice 2 Nussbaum’s Solution to the Problem of Envy 3 Interlude: Love and Envy as Opposite Sides of Our Unsociable Sociability 4 Emulative Envy as a Civic Emotion 5 Conclusion References How the Body Is Involved in Moral and Cognitive Emotions References Conscience and Context 1 The Irrelevance of Conscience 2 The Importance of Context References The Politics of Compassion 1 1. 2 2. 3 3. 4 4. 5 5. 6 6. References Cultivating Citizenship: On the Importance of Stakeholding 1 Introduction 2 The New Religious Intolerance 3 Overcoming Intolerance 4 Alienation and Stakeholding 5 Stakeholding and the Capabilities Approach 6 Towards a Stakeholder Society? References The Liberalism of Love References Perfectionist Liberalism or Political Liberalism? How Might Amartya Sen Respond to Martha Nussbaum’s Question? 1 Introduction and Motivation 2 Preliminaries: The Capability Perspective and Consensual Politics 3 Perfectionist Liberalism and the Capability Perspective 4 Political Liberalism and the Capability Perspective 5 Conclusions References The “Transition” to Restorative Justice 1 Introduction 2 Transition from Anger 3 Why Not Transition to Restoration? 4 In Defence of Restorative Justice 5 Conclusion References Reply 1 Past and Present 2 Political Liberalism 3 Political Emotions: The Body, Envy, Compassion 4 Religious Liberty and Toleration References Index