The Vehement Passions

280 Pages·2002·1.01 MB·English

by  Philip Fisher

T H E V E H E M E N T PA S S I O N S
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PHILIP FISHER
T H E V E H E M E N T P A S S I O N S
PRINCETON
UNIVERSITY
PRESS
PRINCETON
AND OXFORD
Copyright2002byPrincetonUniversityPress
PublishedbyPrincetonUniversityPress,41WilliamStreet,Princeton,NewJersey08540
IntheUnitedKingdom:PrincetonUniversityPress,3MarketPlace,Woodstock,
OxfordshireOX201SY
AllRightsReserved
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Fisher,Philip,1941–
Thevehementpassions/PhilipFisher.
p.cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN0-691-06996-4(alk.paper)
1.Emotions(Philosophy)I.Title.
B105.E46F572002
128′—dc21 2001055193
BritishLibraryCataloging-in-PublicationDataisavailable
ThisbookhasbeencomposedinCentaurwithGillSans
Printedonacid-freepaper.∞
www.pup.princeton.edu
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
F O R E L A I N E S C A R R Y
A N D M A R K F I S H E R
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C O N T E N T S
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix
INTRODUCTION 1
ONE Passions,StrongEmotions,
VehementOccasions 12
TWO PathsamongthePassions 28
THREE Thoroughness 40
FOUR Privacy,RadicalSingularity 53
FIVE Time 71
SIX Rashness 93
SEVEN MutualFear 109
EIGHT TheAestheticsofFear 132
NINE TheRadiusoftheWill 157
TEN AngerandDiminution 171
ELEVEN Grief 199
TWELVE Spiritedness 227
CONCLUSION 246
NOTES 253
AUTHOR INDEX 263
INDEX OF TERMS 266
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A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S
T
his book was completed during a year as a Senior Scholar at the
Getty Research Institute, where the warmth and energy of Michael
Roth and the aid of the remarkable library and staff made the daily
life on the Getty’s sunny hilltop a great pleasure. My thanks to the
GettyFoundationforincludingmeinayearlongprojectandscholar’s
seminar on the passions.
Threesectionsofthisbookinacompressedformwerepresented
as Christian Gauss Seminars at Princeton. I am grateful to Michael
Wood,thedirectoroftheseminars,forhisverygraciousandhumane
hosting of my time in Princeton. His friendship and wide-ranging
conversation made every part of these events a delight. The audience
at Princeton brought out, through their questions and comments, a
welcome set of fresh lines of doubt and speculation. George Kateb’s
rigor and his probing engagement were of particular importance to
me,aswastheintellectualchallengeofAlexanderNehemasandAlbert
Hirschman.
I would like to thank the John Simon Guggenheim foundation
for a fellowship year during which a very many-sided project took its
final form. During that year the Center for Advanced Study in the
BehavioralSciencesatStanford,throughthegenerosityofitsDirector,
Neil Smelser, and its Associate Director, Robert Scott, provided me
with an office and with the company and stimulation of the forty
scholars in residence. The beauty of the Center’s spartan work quar-
ters on the hillside above Stanford give a rugged and informal energy
to every day’s work there.