The University of Chicago The Law School

Martha Nussbaum discusses Monarchy of Fear: A Philosopher Looks at our Political Crisis. She will be joined in conversation by Aziz Huq, the Frank and Bernice J. Greenberg Professor of Law at the University of Chicago.

A Q&A and signing will follow the discussion.

About the book: For decades Martha C. Nussbaum has been an acclaimed scholar and humanist, earning dozens of honors for her books and essays. In The Monarchy of Fear she turns her attention to the current political crisis that has polarized American since the 2016 election. Although today’s atmosphere is marked by partisanship, divisive rhetoric, and the inability of two halves of the country to communicate with one another, Nussbaum focuses on what so many pollsters and pundits have overlooked. She sees a simple truth at the heart of the problem: the political is always emotional. Globalization has produced feelings of powerlessness in millions of people in the West. That sense of powerlessness bubbles into resentment and blame. Blame of immigrants. Blame of Muslims. Blame of other races. Blame of cultural elites. While this politics of blame is exemplified by the election of Donald Trump and the vote for Brexit, Nussbaum argues it can be found on all sides of the political spectrum, left or right. Drawing on a mix of historical and contemporary examples, from classical Athens to the musical Hamilton, The Monarchy of Fear untangles this web of feelings and provides a roadmap of where to go next.

About the author: Martha C. Nussbaum is the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics, appointed in the Philosophy Department and the Law School of the University of Chicago. She gave the 2016 Jefferson Lecture for the National Endowment for the Humanities and won the 2016 Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy, which is regarded as the most prestigious award available in fields not eligible for a Nobel. She has written more than twenty-two books, including Upheavals of Thought: The Intelligence of Emotions; Anger and Forgiveness: Resentment, Generosity, Justice; Not For Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities; and The Monarchy of Fear.

The Becker Friedman Institute (BFI) invites you to a special conference event to explore Radical Markets: Uprooting Capitalism and Democracy for a Just Society, a new book by Eric Posner of the University of Chicago Law School, and Glen Weyl of Microsoft Research New England. A diverse group of University of Chicago scholars, including Steve Levitt, Karin Knorr, Andrew Chien, and Jennifer Pitts, will discuss Posner & Weyl’s vision. In Radical Markets, the authors sketch a path to prosperity, inclusion and justice through radically rethinking property, representation, and association, leveraging increased competition and decentralized information, and unleashing emerging technologies from the Internet to big data and AI.

This event is co-sponsorship by Knowledge Lab & Computational Social Science program. 

*Free copies of Posner & Weyl’s book Radical Markets: Uprooting Capitalism and Democracy for a Just Society, Princeton University Press, to the first 30 to sign-up. They will be available at the event.