Category Archives: Volume 17, no. 5 (2023)

An introduction to the Proceedings of the conference “Rationality and political positivity of emotions: solidarity and benevolence”

25/01/2023Volume 17, no. 5 (2023), Introductory notePaola De Cuzzani and Mirella Pasini

What form of rationality can interact with the world of emotions? What rationality can strengthen the so-called “public passions”? namely those passions able to form the emotional cement of social action tending to the creation of a common project, or to the elimination of the multiple forms of suffering and exclusion? This issue hosts a … Continue reading An introduction to the Proceedings of the conference “Rationality and political positivity of emotions: solidarity and benevolence” →

Citizenship and the emotions: The glue that keeps democratic societies together

25/01/2023Conference proceedings (triple non-blind peer review)Aristotle, Democracy, citizenship, civic friendship, emotions, general will, interests, reason, truthGuðmundur Heiðar Frímannsson

Human beings have feelings and emotions that are of major importance in any person´s life. What is or should be their role in modern democracy? To understand that role we must look at the concept of citizenship. It is essentially a relation between an individual and a political authority. Citizens’ feelings and emotions are shaped by social trust in other citizens. In a good life feelings are infused with reason and can and should be controlled in the public life of democracy. But feelings, like reason, must deal with corruptions in modern democracies.

The making and unmaking of political emotions with narratives

25/01/2023Conference proceedings (triple non-blind peer review)Halbwachs, Politics, Renan, Ricœur, collective memory, emotions, narrativesPascal Nouvel

In this paper, we look at the way through which the conception of the relationship between the three notions of affects, narratives and politics has been conceptualized all along the history of idea identifying three main moments. (1) The Renan’s moment, in which narratives are identified as being a part of the core notion of what makes a nation through the affects of belongings that they are prone to generate. (2) The Halbwachs’ moment at which a distinction was made between history and memory. (3) And finally, the Ricœur’s moment, which tries to define a position that would respect but also pretend to go beyond the distinction previously made by Halbwachs. A common feature of these three moments is then identified pointing to the nexus between narratives, emotions, and politics.

The role of indignation and other moral sentiments in the construction of a common (and solidary) sense of justice

25/01/2023Conference proceedings (triple non-blind peer review)John Rawls, Sense of Justice, commonality, indignation, moral sentiments, resentment, solidarityCésar Akim Erives Chaparro

I make a distinction between moral emotions and moral sentiments, concluding that moral sentiments are a more developed way to reflect and feel in moral contexts. Furthermore, I examine some of the views ethics and moral philosophy have had on the concepts of anger, resentment and indignation, and I relate them with the Rawlsian notion of a Sense of Justice. Thus, I suggest that the Sense of Justice, together with a sense of solidarity, brings together resentment and indignation and channels them into a collective demand for justice and the construction of a common sense thereof.

Notes for the construction of a philosophy of peace through reason and emotions: a joint proposal from Rawlsian theory and the philosophy of care

25/01/2023Conference proceedings (triple non-blind peer review)Peace, care, fraternity, justice, positive politics, rationality, reasonabilityDora Elvira Garcia Gonzalez

In the frameworks of positive politics, the concrete construction of peace is a difficult task to postpone both in the world and in countries such as Mexico. The urgency forces us to think from the theoretical frameworks of some philosophers that give us elements to -from and, with them-build reflections based on reason and emotions. From these reflective findings, it will be possible to modify reality from rational and emotional guidelines. In this text, we start by articulating two proposals, Rawls’ theory of justice and the philosophy of care initiated by Carol Gilligan and continued by a vital stream of theorists on care. With both theories in conjunction, it seems possible to construct some approaches to thinking about peace both from a normative perspective and from its application.

Liberal prudence in the new market of ideas: Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill and the contemporary pitfalls of an unrestricted domain of speech*

25/01/2023Conference proceedings (triple non-blind peer review)Elitism, Freedom of Speech, Hate speech, Liberal Prudence, Open InstitutionalismFabrício Pontin and Johannes Servan

We aim to persuade the reader that Smith and Mill’s conceptions of freedom of speech are not as radically libertarian as most contemporary activists would expect, while also pointing critically at the elitist and somewhat romantic framework which both authors presuppose in order to defend the connection between an open space for expression and the liberal, institutional, progress of the public sphere. We claim that this model (notwithstanding its immense importance for the development of freedom of press and education in the 20th Century) has become increasingly unable to provide regulatory and moderating clues for late modern challenges.

The principle of solidarity between sentiment and reason: a reflection starting from L. Bourgeois’ solidarism.

25/01/2023Conference proceedings (triple non-blind peer review)Foucault, bourgeois, competition, intergenerational-debt, models-of-political-rationality, quasi-contract, reciprocity, solidarityPaola de Cuzzani

The article traces the process that led to the shift of the concept of solidarity from the domain of feelings to political rationality. Going through the genealogy of the term, its polysemy emerges: from the juridical meaning to the sentiment, sense of the bond and the political rationality suggested by Leon Bourgeois. According to Bourgeois, solidarity is based on the reciprocal relationship that all individuals have among themselves, on the intergenerational debt and on the “quasi contract”. The path proposed by Bourgeois can be a starting point for elaborating a possible social and political principle that is alternative to the neoliberal model of governance centred on competition.

Brief Notes on Solidarity and Political Imagination

25/01/2023Conference proceedings (triple non-blind peer review)Communism, David Graber, Etienne de La Boétie, Tyrrany, anarchism, imagination, obedience, political imagination, power, solidarityHans Marius Hansteen

The main idea of Discours de la Servitude volontaire by Etienne de La Boétie (1530-1563) is simple: People don’t obey because tyrants are powerful, tyrants are powerful because people obey. This disrupts the idea of an inherent stability of dominance and introduce a relational and dynamic concept of power, which is seen to emerge from below, rather than to emanate from above. De La Boétie does not only criticize tyranny, he investigates the conditions of possibility of tyrannic rule: habituation through forgetfulness and lack of imagination. He also gives an image of how society might be if people stuck to what nature and reason demand: acting freely, they would treat each other as equals, or rather as brethren. His description implies a concept of solidarity (or even communism). A “politics of imagination” (Graeber) is both an explicit topic and a performative aspect of the Discourse.

“Secure the Blessing of Liberty to our Posterity”: The Founding Fathers and Intergenerational Solidarity

25/01/2023Conference proceedings (triple non-blind peer review)Constitution, Democracy, intergenerational justice, republicanism, solidarityAlberto Giordano

Moral and political obligations towards posterity are usually addressed in terms of justice. In this paper, instead, I wonder whether we might face the issue as a matter of intergenerational solidarity – though social, political and/or civic – by reassessing a famous, but often misinterpreted, debate on the fate of republicanism and the political status of future generations that involved several intellectual giants, like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, at the time of the American founding.

Extreme Tension on the Right in France*

25/01/2023Conference proceedings (triple non-blind peer review)France, extreme right, nationalism, neo-conservatism, populismJuliette Grange

For several years now, extreme right in France has presented two tendencies, quite far from the doctrinal point of view. These two political entities come from very different political backgrounds despite their connections. One, a neo-conservative, is of American origin and was transposed to France in the early 2000s, the other, nationalist and populist, was structured in the nineteenth and especially in the twentieth century in France. This chapter will first analyse the history of the nationalist extreme right in France and then that of French neoconservatism, before drawing up a picture of their meeting and a partial analysis of the tensions this generates.

Nordicum-Mediterraneum

Icelandic E-Journal of Nordic and Mediterranean Studies

Category Archives: Volume 17, no. 5 (2023)

An introduction to the Proceedings of the conference “Rationality and political positivity of emotions: solidarity and benevolence”

Citizenship and the emotions: The glue that keeps democratic societies together

The making and unmaking of political emotions with narratives

The role of indignation and other moral sentiments in the construction of a common (and solidary) sense of justice

Notes for the construction of a philosophy of peace through reason and emotions: a joint proposal from Rawlsian theory and the philosophy of care

Liberal prudence in the new market of ideas: Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill and the contemporary pitfalls of an unrestricted domain of speech*

The principle of solidarity between sentiment and reason: a reflection starting from L. Bourgeois’ solidarism.

Brief Notes on Solidarity and Political Imagination

“Secure the Blessing of Liberty to our Posterity”: The Founding Fathers and Intergenerational Solidarity

Extreme Tension on the Right in France*