Review - The New Religious Intolerance

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The New Religious Intolerance
Overcoming the Politics of Fear in an Anxious Age
by Martha C. Nussbaum
Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2012
Review by Kristof K.P. Vanhoutte
May 7th 2013 (Volume 17, Issue 19)

The Greek god Phobos (fear), son of the god of war (Ares) and the goddess of beauty and love (Aphrodite) is the protagonist of this book on religious (in-)tolerance by philosopher Martha C. Nussbaum. Fear's particular genealogy, a particularity that Phobos shares with Eros who is the son of Poros (power/abundance) and Penia (poverty), already hints at the complexity of the concept of fear and the difficulty one has/will have in confronting and eventually conquering it.

Although fear is the book's protagonist, it has to be said that Nussbaum hasn't written a technical nor theoretical treatise on fear (only the second chapter is somewhat more technical). And even though this is more than probably not the most profound book on fear and religious tolerance ever written, its divulgative nature and the amount of concrete examples presented and treated , makes for it that it is, in the end, a work available for all.

First a brief description of the work. The book consists of 7 chapters. The first chapter treats some religious issues (that is, some issues related to Islam) that have been at the centre of the public discourse in the past years. They are treated briefly as they will return later on in the book confronted, namely the burqa, minarets, mosques, etc.. The second chapter treats fear in a direct and more technical manner (biological, philosophical, and psychological aspects of fear are treated), and the cases of the referendum and consequent law that abolished the construction of minarets in Switzerland and the mass-murder of Anders Breivik in Norway are covered as examples. Chapter three treats the political and legal issues of equality and human dignity. Four 'premises' are listed as being fundamental: 1) the equality premise (all humans have equal dignity), 2) governments may not violate this first premise of equality and dignity, 3) the 'conscience' premise (the faculty with which people search for life's ultimate meaning [conscience] should not be violated), and 4) the vulnerability premise (even though 'situations' can sometimes attack human dignity, human dignity should not/never be violated). This chapter also discusses John Locke's and Roger Williams' political philosophies (their respective insistence on 'neutrality' or 'accommodation'), and some considerations are made about some divergences: impartiality vs. state interests and citizenship vs. immigration. Chapter four is about inconsistency and its over-presence in contemporary discourse on religious liberty; the ban on the burqa in certain European countries and its reasons is presented as a long test-case. The fifth chapter is for its greatest part dedicated to a series of examples in literature that have helped to create and/or develop what Ralph Ellison called one's 'inner eyes', or, said differently, a person's empathic imagination. Sound political principles and legal boundaries are necessary but they are, as Nussbaum repeats correctly over and over again, not enough. A person's empathic imagination is required and can grow, can be helped in its growth, through literature. The sixth chapter is dedicated to the case of park51, the Islamic multi-faith community center near ground zero, and the public discussion around its creation. The seventh and final chapter is a short conclusion.

What combines the diverse chapters, making this work into a cohesive book are the three pillars (or the "three-pronged approach" -- p. 221) of Nussbaum's ethical-philosophical approach in advocating for religious tolerance. These three pillars are, in fact, also that which is fundamental and essential in this book -- the manifold of examples and their discussion can be considered as being case-studies -- and they are, as Nussbaum writes, essential if we want to "uncover [and conquer] the roots of ugly fears and suspicions that currently disfigure all Western societies". (p. 2) These pillars are 1) political principles that express equal respect for all citizens, 2) rigorous critical thinking (considered as the opposite of ignorance), and 3) the cultivation of the imaginative capacity (the so-called 'inner-eye') especially with regard to the position of the other (minority). (cf. p. 2-3) One can (and obviously should) discuss on the importance of and on the precedence of one of these three pillars (something Nussbaum unfortunately rarely does in this book) but their importance cannot simply be ignored -- as a philosopher, it is fundamental to stress the extreme importance of critical thinking and its quintessential role in this triptych.

http://metapsychology.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=book&id=6865&cn=403

[Jim__]

1. Nussbaum discussed this book on BookTV.

It runs for about an hour: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/309528-1

I saw this back in October. She goes into a little more detail about the book. The cited review is probably correct about her generalizing about Europe; I don't remember that point occurring to me when I watched her presentation.

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2. Bookmarked.

Thanks for the link.