Public passion : rethinking the grounds for political justice / Rebecca Kingston.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kingston, Rebecca.

Series:

McGill-Queen's studies in the history of ideas ; 54.

McGill-Queen's studies in the history of ideas ; 54

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Emotions--Political aspects.

Emotions.

Political psychology.

Political science--Philosophy.

Political science.

Emotions (Philosophy).

Physical Description:

237 pages ; 17 cm.

Place of Publication:

Montréal : McGill-Queen's University Press, 2011.

Summary:

Whether in response to the stirring political oratory of de Gaulle or Martin Luther King or in popular uprisings of the Arab Spring, emotion and politics are connected. Nonetheless, political debate and discourse are often criticized for being emotionally, rather than rationally, based and emotion is often presented as a negative factor in politics. Public Passion restores the legitimacy of shared emotion in political life, arguing that reason and emotion are not mutually exclusive.

Public Passion traces the role of emotion in political thought from its prominence in classical sources, through its resuscitation by Montesquieu, to the present moment. Combining intellectual history, philosophy, and political theory, Rebecca Kingston develops a sophisticated account of collective emotion that demonstrates how popular sentiment is compatible with debate, pluralism, and individual agency and shows how emotion shapes interactions among citizens. She also analyzes the ways in which emotions are shared and transmitted among citizens of particular regimes, paying close attention to the connection between political institutions and the psychological dispositions that they foster.

Public Passion presents new ways to appreciate the forms of popular will and reveals that emotional understanding by citizens may be the basis through which a commitment to principles of justice can be sustained. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Bringing Passion Back In 3

2 Contagion Theory Revisited 23

3 Cities and Public Passion in Plato and Aristotle 61

4 The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Debate on Passions and Public Life 92

5 Montesquieu and Public Passion 107

6 Revisiting the Republic of Love 128

7 Self-interest and the Public Good in the Discourse of Monarchical Honour 149

8 Fear 164

9 Normative Political Theory in Light of Public Passion: Justice out of Passion 182.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780773538788

077353878X

9780773539266

0773539263

OCLC:

719427519