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Title details for Anger and Forgiveness by Martha C. Nussbaum - Wait list

Anger and Forgiveness

Resentment, Generosity, Justice

by Martha C. Nussbaum
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Anger is not just ubiquitous, it is also popular. Many people think it is impossible to care sufficiently for justice without anger at injustice. Many believe that it is impossible for individuals to vindicate their own self-respect or to move beyond an injury without anger. To not feel anger in those cases would be considered suspect. Is this how we should think about anger, or is anger above all a disease, deforming both the personal and the political? In this wide-ranging book, Martha C. Nussbaum, one of our leading public intellectuals, argues that anger is conceptually confused and normatively pernicious. It assumes that the suffering of the wrongdoer restores the thing that was damaged, and it betrays an all-too-lively interest in relative status and humiliation. Studying anger in intimate relationships, casual daily interactions, the workplace, the criminal justice system, and movements for social transformation, Nussbaum shows that anger's core ideas are both infantile and harmful. Is forgiveness the best way of transcending anger? Nussbaum examines different conceptions of this much-sentimentalized notion, both in the Jewish and Christian traditions and in secular morality. Some forms of forgiveness are ethically promising, she claims, but others are subtle allies of retribution: those that exact a performance of contrition and abasement as a condition of waiving angry feelings. In general, she argues, a spirit of generosity (combined, in some cases, with a reliance on impartial welfare-oriented legal institutions) is the best way to respond to injury. Applied to the personal and the political realms, Nussbaum's profoundly insightful and erudite view of anger and forgiveness puts both in a startling new light.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    April 1, 2016

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9780199335893

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9780199335893
      • File size: 595 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Library Journal

      Starred review from June 15, 2016

      Nussbaum (Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics, Univ. of Chicago; Upheavals of Thought) continues to draw on Greco-Roman philosophical investigations of human emotions for insight on the roles they should play in contemporary life. Herein she challenges received notions about the utility of anger (and the accompanying desire for retribution) and "transactional forgiveness" (which makes forgiveness conditional on apology and contrition), positing "transition-anger" and "unconditional generosity" focused on promoting well-being and justice going forward. Nussbaum spells out and defends her conception of a more rational alternative to anger and forgiveness at the levels of intimate familial relationships; in the intermediate realm of work and casual interactions; and on the political, legal, and societal level. Illustrating her arguments with examples from Medea to Gustav Mahler to Nelson Mandela, from the requiem "Dies Irae" to Archbishop Desmond Tutu, her crisp writing sustains readers' interest, even when one disagrees with how she parses her topics. This is a philosophical work, so readers expecting sustained engagement with psychological or social scientific literature, whether pop or academic, will be mostly disappointed. VERDICT Highly recommended. Nussbaum offers careful, nuanced distinctions with clear implications on the personal and political levels.--Steve Young, McHenry Cty. Coll., Crystal Lake, IL

      Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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