Anger and Revolutionary Justice: Ideas for Liberal Learning

Martha Nussbaum, Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago

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 also believe that it is impossible for individuals to vindicate their own self-respect adequately without anger.  This lecture will argue that anger is conceptually confused and normatively pernicious.  After discussing the emotion in general, Martha will focus on revolutionary justice, giving reasons to support the philosophies of non-anger advanced by Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Nelson Mandela. She will also reflect on the importance of liberal arts education for thinking critically about our society and our social and political interactions.

Sponsored by the Eve Adler Department of Classics and the Program in Classical Studies; the Department of Philosophy and the Middlebury Institute’s Deans’ Seminars.