Political emotions Why love matters for justice

Whatever Nussbaum (Univ. of Chicago) publishes is essential for university library collections of political theory. Her career is essentially a striving to understand the emotional foundations of democratic governance and to take seriously the state's interest in promoting and protecting civic emotions. This book is no exception. Nussbaum takes the position that what is missing in contemporary politics is acceptance of the "uneven and often unlovely destiny of human beings" and that the normative goals of the liberal/progressive agenda could draw sustenance from a wider acceptance of this destiny. Nussbaum is naturally drawn to consider political emotion and public religion through such writers as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Auguste Comte, whom she rejects, and John Stuart Mill and Rabindranath Tagore, whom she embraces. These latter writers expressed a modified, controlled public emotion that may drive progress without the instability of particularity or dangerous suppression of individual expression. The book is comprehensive in scope and voluminous in references to classical, contemporary, and world art, music, and literature. If nothing else, it stands as a monument to the kind of thinking about civic life that is possible only through deep familiarity with liberal arts. Summing Up: Essential. All readership levels. J. E. Herbel Georgia College and State University

The latest book from University of Chicago law and ethics professor Nussbaum (The Fragility of Goodness) stimulates readers with challenging insights on the role of emotion in political life. Her provocative theory of social change shows how a truly just society might be realized through the cultivation and studied liberation of emotions, specifically love. To that end, the book sparkles with Nussbaum's characteristic literary analysis, drawing from both Western and South Asian sources, including a deep reading of public monuments. In one especially notable passage, Nussbaum artfully interprets Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, revealing it as a musical meditation on the emotionality of revolutionary politics and feminism. Such chapters are a culmination of her passion for seeing art and literature as philosophical texts, a theme in her writing that she profitably continues here. The elegance with which she negotiates this diverse material deserves special praise, as she expertly takes the reader through analyses of philosophy, opera, primatology, psychology, and poetry. In contrast to thinkers like John Rawls, who imagined an already just world, Nussbaum addresses how to order our society to reach such a world. A plea for recognizing the power of art, symbolism, and enchantment in public life, Nussbaum's cornucopia of ideas effortlessly commands attention and debate. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.