The Enlightenment of Sympathy

Michael L. Frazer is an Assistant Professor of Government and Social Studies at Harvard University. His research focuses on Enlightenment political philosophy and its relevance for contemporary political theory. Professor Frazer has also published articles on Maimonides, Nietzsche, John Rawls and Leo Strauss in such journals as Political Theory and The Review of Politics. Before arriving at Harvard, he studied at Yale and Princeton Universities, and received a postdoctoral appointment in the Political Theory Project at Brown University. He lives in Somerville, MA with his wife Coral and son Oren.

• Acknowledgements ; Introduction: A Tale of Two Enlightenments ; Chapter 1: Sentimentalism Before Hume ; I. The New Science of Human Nature ; II. Religious and Metaphysical Foundations ; III. Theories of Justice ; Chapter 2: Hume's Free-Standing Sentimentalism ; I. Sympathy and the Moral Sentiments ; II. Moral Development ; III. Hume's Normative Theory ; Chapter 3: Hume's Conservative Sentimentalism ; I. Hume's Theory of Justice ; II. The Sentimentalist Case Against Hume's Theory ; Chapter 4: Adam Smith's Liberal Sentimentalism ; I. The Alleged Incompatibility of Sentimentalism with Individualism ; II. The Space Between Actor and Spectator: Sympathy and Moral Judgment ; III. The Space Between Actors: Justice and Natural Jurisprudence ; Chapter 5: Kant's Abandonment of Sentimentalism ; I. The Critical-Period Position on the Foundations of Morals ; II. The Critical-Period Normative Evaluation of Sympathy ; III. The Critical-Period Theory of Affects and Passions ; IV. A Contrasting Pre-Critical Position ; Chapter 6: Herder's Pluralist Sentimentalism ; I. Sentimentalism and the Problem of Diversity ; II. From Sympathy to Diversity ; III. From Diversity to Empathetic Understanding ; IV. From Empathetic Understanding to Justice ; Chapter 7: Sentimentalism Today ; I. Sentimentalism and Social Science ; II. Sentimentalism and Normative Theory ; III. Sentimentalism and Political Practice ; Bibliography

Michael Frazer has written a thought-provoking analysis and defense of sentimentalist theory. His excellent book is well written and carefully researched, offering insightful discussions of a wide range of thinkers. It will be of great interest to students and scholars working in, among other areas, moral theory, political theory, and eighteenth-century thought.