Hiding from Humanity This page intentionally left blank Hiding from Humanity Disgust, Shame, and the Law MARTHA C. NUSSBAUM Princeton University Press Princeton and Oxford Copyright © 2004 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 3 Market Place, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1SY All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Nussbaum, Martha Craven, 1947– Hiding from humanity : disgust, shame, and the law / Martha C. Nussbaum. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-691-09526–4 (alk. paper) 1. Law—Psychological aspects. I. Title. K346.N87 2004 340'.1'9—dc22 2003061013 British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available This book has been composed in New Baskerville Printed on acid-free paper. ∞ www.pup.princeton.edu Printed in the United States of America 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 For David Halperin This page intentionally left blank O my body! I dare not desert the likes of you in other men and women, nor the likes of the parts of you, I believe the likes of you are to stand or fall with the likes of the soul, (and that they are the soul,) I believe the likes of you shall stand or fall with my poems, and that they are my poems. —Walt Whitman, “I Sing the Body Electric,” 9.129–131 Human beings are not by nature kings, or lords, or courtiers, or rich. All are born naked and poor; all are subject to the miseries of life, to sorrows, ills, needs, and pains of every kind. Finally, all are condemned to death.... It is the weakness of the human being that makes us sociable; it is our common miseries that turn our hearts to humanity; we would owe humanity nothing if we were not human. Every attachment is a sign of insufficiency. If each of us had no need of others, he would hardly think of uniting himself with them. Thus from our weak- ness our fragile happiness is born. . . . I do not conceive how someone who needs nothing can love anything. I do not conceive how someone who loves nothing can be happy. —Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile,Book IV “The alarming thing about equality is that we are then both children, and the question is, where is father? We know where we are if one of us is the father.” —B, patient of Donald Winnicott, analysis published as Holding and Interpretation This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgments xiii Introduction 1 I.Shame and Disgust: Confusion in Practice and Theory 1 II.Law without the Emotions? 5 III.Two Problematic Emotions 13 Chapter 1. Emotions and Law 19 I.Appeals to Emotion 20 II.Emotion and Belief, Emotion and Value 24 III.Emotions, Appraisal, and Moral Education 31 IV.Emotion and the “Reasonable Man”: Manslaughter, Self-Defense 37 V.Emotions and Changing Social Norms 46 VI.Reasonable Sympathy: Compassion in Criminal Sentencing 48 VII.Emotions and Political Liberalism 56 VIII.How to Appraise Emotions 67