The Reconstitution of Emotions in Political Life: A Critique

Simple item page
dc.contributor.advisorMcNally, David J.
dc.contributor.authorReichert, Veronika Shay Helena
dc.date.accessioned2024-07-18T21:17:52Z
dc.date.available2024-07-18T21:17:52Z
dc.date.copyright2024-03-12
dc.date.issued2024-07-18
dc.date.updated2024-07-18T21:17:52Z
dc.degree.disciplinePolitical Science
dc.degree.levelDoctoral
dc.degree.namePhD - Doctor of Philosophy
dc.description.abstractThis dissertation begins with the query: how can the exclusion of emotions, and the presence of a dichotomy of reason and emotion, be accounted for in political life? Using the social history method of political theory—a method premised upon the interdisciplinary and socially-embedded character of political ideas and theoretical works—I investigate the premises of the notion of the reason-emotion dichotomy through a historical, philosophical, and political examination of the passions/emotions and rationality within the framework of the divide between the private realm and the political realm, or the public-private dichotomy. Working through Jürgen Habermas’s influential conceptualisation of the bourgeois public sphere, and placing it in dialogue with the history of the “countervailing passions” theory of early modern moral and political philosophy, I discovered a historical tendency by which the conception of reason is narrowed to comprise self-interested calculative behaviour, set against that which is irrational or passionate. A deep historical investigation into the origins of the concept of “emotions” reveals a second related tendency, by which what is deemed “emotion” is reduced through the broadening of the category to be divorced from and oppositional to the rational. My work demonstrated that these two tendencies are intertwined with the foundational public-private dichotomy of modern politics, by which the political is deemed wholly rational, and the irrational/passionate/emotional must remain outside of politics, in the private realm. These two dichotomies, of reason and emotion and the public and the private, are fundamental tenets of liberal political philosophy, thus posing an insurmountable challenge for contemporary political philosophy which seeks to include emotions in liberal politics. I demonstrate that the exclusion of the emotions, the crux of the reason-emotion dichotomy, is not based on a general exclusion of emotions in themselves, but is actually based upon the social exclusion which is a necessary determinant of liberal politics. My analysis of emotion in liberal politics, and critique of contemporary projects of political emotions, challenges dominant understandings of democracy and of inclusionary versus exclusionary political ideas, theories, structures, and institutions.
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10315/42129
dc.languageen
dc.rightsAuthor owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.
dc.subjectPolitical Science
dc.subjectModern history
dc.subjectPhilosophy
dc.subject.keywordsEmotions
dc.subject.keywordsHistory of emotions
dc.subject.keywordsPublic sphere
dc.subject.keywordsPrivate sphere
dc.subject.keywordsPassions
dc.subject.keywordsHistory of thought
dc.subject.keywordsHistory of science
dc.subject.keywordsHistory of psychology
dc.subject.keywordsDemocracy
dc.subject.keywordsHabermas
dc.subject.keywordsHistory of political thought
dc.subject.keywordsPolitical emotions
dc.subject.keywordsCountervailing passion theory
dc.subject.keywordsSocial history
dc.subject.keywordsEconomic thought
dc.subject.keywordsModernity
dc.subject.keywordsBourgeois universality
dc.subject.keywordsDichotomy of reason and emotion
dc.subject.keywordsDichotomy of public and private
dc.subject.keywordsPublic and private dichotomy
dc.subject.keywordsLiberalism
dc.subject.keywordsLiberal political theory
dc.subject.keywordsHistory of liberal thought
dc.subject.keywordsPolitical participation
dc.subject.keywordsPolitical inclusion
dc.subject.keywordsPolitical exclusion
dc.subject.keywordsLiberal democracy
dc.subject.keywordsPopular sovereignty
dc.subject.keywordsCognitivist theories of emotion
dc.subject.keywordsPolitical critique
dc.subject.keywordsPolitical economy
dc.subject.keywordsMoral philosophy
dc.titleThe Reconstitution of Emotions in Political Life: A Critique
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Reichert_Veronika_SH_2024_PhD.pdf
Size:
1.5 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.87 KB
Format:
Plain Text
Description:
Download
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
YorkU_ETDlicense.txt
Size:
3.39 KB
Format:
Plain Text
Description:
Download

Collections

Political Science

All items in the YorkSpace institutional repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved except where explicitly noted.