Publication Date
2020
Document Type
Dissertation/Thesis
First Advisor
Radasanu, Andrea
Degree Name
Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy)
Legacy Department
Department of Political Science
Abstract
Liberal democracy has historically owed its attractiveness to the promise of a more compassionate society structured around pluralistic and tolerant principles. Yet recent events in western democracies seem to indicate a lack of compassionate social bonds. Why has a politics of compassion failed to materialize and what must be done to make good on the original promise of liberal democracy? To answer these questions, I provide a historically and theoretically grounded account of compassion as a principle of liberalism, with special attention to the political thought of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Adam Smith, and Alexis de Tocqueville. In particular, I seek to understand why these thinkers, remarkable for their emphasis on other- directed sentiments, expressed uncertainty regarding the efficacy of compassion. I argue that the fundamental commitments of liberalism, as articulated in modern political philosophy, necessarily bring compassion to the forefront of our moral consciousness, but in a way that is insufficient to offset the more dissociative tendencies of liberal democracy. In order for compassion to foster strong, equitable, and charitable bonds in our political life, it must be augmented with external moral resources that may be hard to come by in liberal modernity. The thinkers examined here attempted to provide such resources with varying degrees of success, providing us with a useful template as we attempt to navigate the crisis of liberalism in the early twenty-first century.
Recommended Citation
Hoss, Lewis, "Liberalism and the Problem of Compassion in Rousseau, Smith, and Tocqueville" (2020). Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations. 7207.
https://huskiecommons.lib.niu.edu/allgraduate-thesesdissertations/7207
Extent
244 pages
Language
eng
Publisher
Northern Illinois University
Rights Statement
In Copyright
Rights Statement 2
NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.
Media Type
Text
