Meena Krishnamurthy, Associate Professor of Philosophy, has published a new book: , published by Oxford University Press, is now available.
Abstract (from Oxford): The Emotions of Nonviolence offers a novel interpretation of Martin Luther King Jr.’s beloved “Letter from Birmingham Jail”: it is not merely a discussion of civil disobedience—as is usually thought—but is also and perhaps even primarily an essay on political motivation. On this reading, the Letter seeks to answer a central question in democratic theory: namely, how can and ought one motivate the racially oppressed to engage in civil disobedience—in what King called nonviolent direct action? King’s answer is that one must appeal to and encourage the political emotions, both positive and negative. Fear, courage, faith, dignity, indignation, and love can together motivate nonviolent action, and nonviolent action can reciprocally motivate and sustain these same emotions. This new and exciting reading of King’s Letter restores its complexity. The Letter’s true addressees are not merely the eight clergymen to whom King explicitly responded but are also the white moderates, Black clergymen, and Black middle-class moderates, and perhaps most of all, the Black masses. Read in this light, the Letter points to an underlying theory of political emotions, details the impediments to action under conditions of injustice, calls various audiences to account for their hypocritical, self-serving, or fearful inaction, engages in propagandizing—working on both intellect and emotion—to motivate a change, and to commend and support the thousands of ordinary Black people already in motion in pursuit of democracy, freedom, and justice.