Political Emotions

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.”
- Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear (Dune) 

“Quite an experience, to live in fear, isn’t it?
That’s what it is to be a slave.”
- The replicant Roy Batty (Blade Runner)

Emotions figure in many areas of public life, and a number of pressing political issues (from fear in the evaluation of biomedical promises, to compassion in the criminal courtroom) invite us to think about the role of emotion in shaping citizens' political thought and action. Emotions, however, are all too rarely studied conceptually, with the result that both political theory and practice are often left at a loss. Through lectures and seminar discussion, this module will offer the opportunity for you to engage in close analysis of the philosophy and cognitive science of emotion, as well as the ethical concerns that are raised by the role emotions can play in political activity and institutional practice.

The first part of this module will study prominent theories of emotion, asking about the connection between emotion, reason, and morality. This part takes a philosophical approach, but is also informed by cutting-edge advances in neurobiology and cognitive science. We then turn to the public stage, asking how specific emotions figure in political questions: anger, revenge, fear, pain, dignity, and disgust. Political topics considered will include risky technologies, wrongful legal conviction, capital punishment, the Universal Basic Income, and assisted dying. In the final part of the course, we turn to the role of emotion in media politics and protest movements, assessing how compassion can be manufactured and mediated through political rhetoric, social media, social privilege, and popular fiction. We end with possibly the most crucial political emotion of all: boredom.