Anger and forgiveness Resentment, generosity, justice

Martha Craven Nussbaum, 1947-

Book - 2016

"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."--Provided by publisher.

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Subjects
Published
New York : Oxford University Press [2016]
Language
English
Main Author
Martha Craven Nussbaum, 1947- (author)
Physical Description
xii, 315 pages ; 25 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 293-301) and index.
ISBN
9780199335879
  • Acknowledgments
  • 1. Introduction: Furies into Eumenides
  • 2. Anger: Weakness, Payback, Down-Ranking
  • 3. Forgiveness: A Genealogy
  • Appendix: Dies Irae.
  • 4. Intimate Relationships: The Trap of Anger
  • 5. The Middle Realm: Stoicism Qualified
  • 6. The Political Realm: Everyday Justice
  • 7. The Political Realm: Revolutionary Justice
  • 8. Conclusion: The Eyes of the World
  • Appendix A. Emotions and Upheavals of Thought
  • Appendix B. Anger and Blame
  • Appendix C. Anger and Its Species
  • Notes
  • Bibliography
  • Index
Review by Choice Review

Over the years Nussbaum (Univ. of Chicago), who has an appointment in both law and philosophy, has written extensively about emotions, exploring their nature and their role in the good life. Here she writes eloquently and knowledgeably about anger and forgiveness, using an amiable writing style that makes the intellectual nature of the project fully accessible. First she tackles anger--a reaction to being wrongfully harmed, which tends to trigger in the subject a desire to harm the perpetrator in return. The author argues that even though anger is often seen as destructive, there is a mode she calls transition-anger that can turn the bearer of this emotion into an actor working toward positive consequences in the world. She then focuses on forgiveness--another often reactive emotion, this one with apparent roots in the Judeo-Christian tradition, which often entails contrition--arguing that it can also be positively transformative rather than necessarily dangerous to the subject and to society. Nussbaum sets anger and forgiveness side by side with other emotions, and shows their relevance to literature, art, politics, ethics, and law. Informative and insightful, this book is a great entry point for understanding these two crucial states of mental life. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers. --Phil Jenkins, Marywood University

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review

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 Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.