The Feeling of Inequality

How does socio-economic inequality affect our ability to relate to each other on emotional and intellectual levels? To date, public discourse on the rising level of inequality in many Western nations has been informed by quantifiable terms such as income and capital. Philosophical approaches, conversely, tend to focus on distributional aspects such as welfare, resources, and opportunities. In The Feeling of Inequality, author Martin Hartmann argues that the impact of inequality far transcends the material, highlighting the ways in which the emotional aspects of these disparities serve as engines of social differentiation. Reinterpreting David Hume's and Adam Smith's respective theories of sympathy, Hartmann sketches a relational theory of democracy that construes equality as a social relationship, placing particular emphasis on the emotions and attitudes that often accompany inequality such as contempt, envy, shame, esteem, pride, and admiration. Hartmann then localizes these 'relative' emotions in social and cultural practices, illustrating the ways in which these emotions result in concrete manifestations of inequality. By breaking down the foundations of the various empathy gulfs plaguing contemporary democratic societies, Hartmann paves the way for a more compassionate approach to thinking about inequality.

Martin Hartmann is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Lucerne. He received a PhD in Philosophy from Goethe University Frankfurt.

Introduction: Toward a Relational Democratic Equality Part One: Empathy and Empathy Gulfs 1. Empathy as Non-Moral Psychological Mechanism 2. Against Empathy: Criticizing the Critiques 3. The Role of Imagination 4. Empathy Gulfs Part Two: Agents of Differentiation: Hume's Account of Positional Feelings 5. Sympathy and Imagination 6. The Principle of Comparison and the Peculiar Self 7. Does the Comparative Urge Disrupt Sympathy? 8. Masters, Servants, and Relational Proximities of Power Part Three: “We Despise a Beggar”: Smith's Defense of Inequality 9. Sympathy and the Impartial Spectator 10. Limits of Sympathy in Smith 11. Going Along with the Rich and Powerful: Establishing Inequality 12. The Problem of Imputation: Sympathetic Prejudices Part Four: Distances 13. Drawing Systematic Lessons from Hume and Smith for an Account of Relational Inequality 14. Scenarios of Inequality: Domestic Cleaners, Cows, Restaurant Kitchens, and the Denial of Existing Relations 15. The Materiality of Moral Distance I: Tocqueville's Pre-Revolutionary France 16. The Materiality of Moral Distance II: Space, Marriage, Taxes and Language Part Five: Empathy Gulfs and the Question of Critique 17. What's Wrong with Empathy Gulfs? Complementary Dependence and the Union of Social Unions 18. Absolute versus Relative Inequality: A Problematic Strategy in Recent Egalitarianism 19. The Denigration of Envy and the Inequality of Emotional Impact 20. Critique and Comparison Bibliography Acknowledgments Index