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Misanthropy in the Age of Reason is an important book for philosophers interested in the moral nature and condition of humankind.
The term misanthrope is associated with hatefulness towards human beings and dispositions to hostile or even violent behaviours. Attic Greece provided both the term and some of the most enduring exempla, notably Timon of Athens. The term later passed into Western tradition thanks to playwrights enticed by its critical, dramatic power. Aristophanes, Lucian of Samosata and Shakespeare showcased Timon as did many later writers. Philosophers have at times been part of discourses about the nature of misanthropy.
Socrates offers the first recorded discussion of the origins of misanthropic sentiment in the Phaedo. Cicero was vocal about misanthropy and Plato and others offered their own reflections. Misanthropy persisted in early Christian reflections, connected to ideals of agape and philanthropy and later to darker postlapsarian accounts of our ‘fallenness’. The usual misanthropic behaviours remained hostility towards others and reclusion and withdrawal from the social world. Kant – in his lectures on ethics, religion, and anthropology – describes two kinds of misanthrope: hostile ‘Enemies of Mankind’ and self-withdrawing ‘Fugitives from Mankind’. Each recapitulates an image of misanthropy dating back to Aristophanes.
The classical pedigree of misanthropy as a topic, concept and stance on humankind makes it puzzling that – until very recently – there was little interest in it from philosophers. I suspect most felt that ‘hatred of humankind’ was too extreme to warrant sustained analysis. In the last six years, this changed thanks to David E. Cooper’s book Animals and Misanthropy. It characterised misanthropy as a negative and critical verdict on the collective moral condition of humanity as it has come to be. This verdict could be expressed in hatred, but need not be. Subsequent misanthropologists endorsed this account, although others defended the ‘hatred’ view. The contemporary philosophical work on misanthropy would profit by engaging more with those historical discourses. This is now easier thanks a new book by Joseph Harris – a historian at Royal Holloway University of London – who offers an excellent account of a crucial part of that history.
Source: leschroniquesculturelles.com
Misanthropy in the Age of Reason opens with …
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