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Holding out hope :Cynicism in democracy (Alexis de Tocqueville, Ralph Waldo Emerson).

Record Type:	Electronic resources : Monograph/item
Title/Author:	Holding out hope :
Reminder of title:	Cynicism in democracy (Alexis de Tocqueville, Ralph Waldo Emerson).
Author:	Dutton, Denise Elizabeth.
Description:	233 p.
Notes:	Advisers: Amy Gutmann; George Kates.
Notes:	Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 64-03, Section: A, page: 1056.
Contained By:	Dissertation Abstracts International64-03A.
Subject:	Political Science, General.
Online resource:	http://pqdd.sinica.edu.tw/twdaoapp/servlet/advanced?query=3085045
ISBN:	0496328522

Holding out hope :Cynicism in democracy (Alexis de Tocqueville, Ralph Waldo Emerson).
Dutton, Denise Elizabeth.

Holding out hope :Cynicism in democracy (Alexis de Tocqueville, Ralph Waldo Emerson). [electronic resource] - 233 p.

Advisers: Amy Gutmann; George Kates.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Princeton University, 2003.

Engaging cynicism as provisionally hopeful, I argue that its lingering sense of disappointment with habituated ways of living affirms individuals' capacity for self-government and spurs their attempts to live freely and morally.

ISBN: 0496328522Subjects--Topical Terms:

212408
Political Science, General.

Holding out hope :Cynicism in democracy (Alexis de Tocqueville, Ralph Waldo Emerson).
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245 1 0 $a Holding out hope : $b Cynicism in democracy (Alexis de Tocqueville, Ralph Waldo Emerson). $h [electronic resource]
300 $a 233 p.
500 $a Advisers: Amy Gutmann; George Kates.
500 $a Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 64-03, Section: A, page: 1056.
502 $a Thesis (Ph.D.)--Princeton University, 2003.
520 # $a Engaging cynicism as provisionally hopeful, I argue that its lingering sense of disappointment with habituated ways of living affirms individuals' capacity for self-government and spurs their attempts to live freely and morally.
520 # $a The subsequent chapters offer ways to respond to this challenge to render cynicism reflective in its disengagement. In these chapters I discern a commitment to individual liberty and equality that animates the cynical disposition, as well as a role for cynicism in educating individuals in the art of being free. Emerson illustrates how cynicism's withdrawal serves as means toward self-reliance. William James reveals how cynicism's despair about the insignificance of our actions facilitates a deliberate affirmation of one's own meaningfulness. Reinhold Niebuhr advocates a tamed cynicism as an expression of democratic faith that neither succumbs to defeatism in light of democracy's imperfect practices, nor turns dogmatic in its commitment to them.
520 # $a This dissertation challenges the common assumption that the pervasiveness of contemporary cynicism is corrosive to democracy. Taking seriously the substantive concerns to which cynicism gives voice, I assess both the value and the dangers of this disposition. I argue that in focusing on the negative expressions and debilitating effects of cynicism, we risk obscuring the convictions that animate its scorn and the potential contributions that may arise from its withdrawal. To better respond to its persistent presence, I suggest we need to engage the depth of its disappointment and elucidate the passionately held ideals that lend cynicism its keen edge.
520 # $a Without dismissing the dangers of cynicism's resigned complacency and bitter disillusionment, I excavate a tradition in American political thought that enlists its disaffection toward government and its gnawing sense of unfullfillment as a goad toward affirming democratic ideals and improving democratic practices. In the first chapter I extract from Tocqueville's analysis of Democracy in America an account of how cynicism arises from our understanding of and expectations for democracy. Treating cynicism as one of the wild instincts inherent in, but dangerous to, democracy, Tocqueville helps us reformulate the challenge of cynicism as one of directing, rather than muting or discouraging, its impulse to disengage.
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791 $a Ph.D.
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