Abstract: At the very beginning of my talk, I shall introduce a crucial distinction between the terms “resentment” and “ressentiment.” We can take for granted that every protest action is accompanied by resentment, if we understand the latter with Peter Strawson as a negative reactive attitude to someone who is causing harm to oneself. However, “ressentiment” entails two additional semantic components, namely that the receiver of harm first suppresses her reaction to the offender and then redirects this reaction onto uninvolved collective others who become objects of her dehumanizing hate. Such objects might be immigrants, ethnic minorities, foreign nations, “global elites,” etc. In a next step, I shall share some thoughts on the social mechanisms and reasons for the development and spread of ressentiments, as well as on why and how those who are affected by them erect visible and invisible walls around themselves and so erode liberal democracies.

Krassimir Stojanov is a professor at the University of Eichstaett-Ingolstadt.

Loading…

Taking too long?

Reload document

| Open in new tab