“A ciência do sentir e do sofrer”: psicologia moral, experiência e injustiça em Rousseau e Shklar

João M. Nonato

doi:10.47456/sofia.v15i1.49531

Authors

João M. Nonato PUC-SP https://orcid.org/0009-0003-2064-1964

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47456/sofia.v15i1.49531

Keywords:

Judith Shklar, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, moral psychology, sense of injustice, agonistic liberalism

Abstract

This article investigates the influence of Jean-Jacques Rousseau on Judith Shklar’s political theory. I argue that Shklar inherits from Rousseau not only elements of a moral psychology, but more importantly, a psychological sensibility attuned to the negative experiences of the ordinary individual. The essay begins with Men and citizens (1969), where Shklar presents Rousseau as a reformulator of Lockean introspective psychology, imbuing it with moral and political significance. I then examine, based on Rousseau’s own works, descriptions of the feeling of injustice as an experience both enabled by natural dispositions and mediated by social relations, serving as a psychic foundation for the normative critique of political reality. Finally, I explore how, in The faces of injustice (1990), Shklar draws on this legacy to develop an agonistic defense of liberal democracy, rooted in the articulation of situated experiences of fear, injustice, and suffering.

Author Biography

João M. Nonato, PUC-SP

Holds an MA in Philosophy from PUC-SP and a BA in Social Sciences from PUC-Rio, with a focus on the intersections between political theory and moral psychology. Researches liberal thought and theories of justice, with an emphasis on the work of Judith Shklar.

References

BAJOHR, Hannes. The sources of liberal normativity. In: ASHENDEN, Samantha; HESS, Andreas (Eds.). Between utopia and realism: the political thought of Judith Shklar. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019, p. 158–178.

BERLIN, Isaiah; HARDY, Henry (Ed.). Liberty. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.

FORRESTER, Katrina. Hope and memory in the thought of Judith Shklar. In: Modern intellectual history¸v. 8, n. 3, 2011, p. 591–620.

FORRESTER, Katrina. Experience, ideology, and the politics of psychology. In: ASHENDEN, Samantha; HESS, Andreas (Eds.). Between utopia and realism: the political thought of Judith Shklar. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019, p. 136–157.

FRICKER, Miranda. Epistemic injustice: power and the ethics of knowing. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.

GATTA, Giunia. Rethinking liberalism for the 21st century: the skeptical radicalism of Judith Shklar. New York: Routledge, 2018.

HESS, Andreas. The political theory of Judith N. Shklar: exile from exile. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.

KATEB, George. Foreword. In: SHKLAR, Judith N.; HOFFMANN, Stanley (Ed.). Political thought and political thinkers. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998, p. vii–xix.

KELLY, Christopher. Rousseau’s exemplary life: The Confessions as political philosophy. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987.

KELLY, Christopher. Jean Starobinski, Jean–Jacques Rousseau: Transparency and Obstruction. In: Philosophy in Review 8, 1988, p. 363–365.

KELLY, Christopher. On the naturalness of the sentiment of injustice. In: L’esprit créateur, vol. 52, no. 4, De l'émotion chez Rousseau / Rousseau and Emotions, Winter 2012, p. 68–80.

MOYN, Samuel. Before – and beyond – the liberalism of fear. In: ASHENDEN, Samantha; HESS, Andreas (Eds.). Between utopia and realism: the political thought of Judith Shklar. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019, p. 24–46.

MOYN, Samuel. Liberalism against itself: Cold War intellectuals and the making of our times. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2023.

PICKFORD, Elena. Judith Shklar on the problem of political motivation. In: History of European ideas, 2024, p. 1–17.

ROUSSEAU, Jean–Jacques. Les confessions. Paris: Garnier Frères Libraires–Éditeurs, 1879.

ROUSSEAU, Jean–Jacques. Discurso sobre a origem e os fundamentos da desigualdade entre os homens. Tradução de Paulo Neves. Porto Alegre: L&PM, 2008.

ROUSSEAU, Jean–Jacques. Émile ou De l'éducation. PhiloSophie, 2018. Disponível em: https://philo–labo.fr/fichiers/Rousseau%20–%20Emile%20(Grenoble).pdf . Acesso em: 11 jun. 2025.

SHKLAR, Judith N. Legalism: an essay on law, morals and politics. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1964.

SHKLAR, Judith N. Men and citizens: a study of Rousseau’s social theory. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1969.

SHKLAR, Judith N. Ordinary vices. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984.

SHKLAR, Judith N. The liberalism of fear. In: ROSENBLUM, Nancy (Ed.). Liberalism and the moral life. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989, p. 21–38.

SHKLAR, Judith N. The faces of injustice. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990.

SHKLAR, Judith N. A life of learning. In: YACK, Bernard (ed.). Liberalism without illusions: essays on liberal theory and the political vision of Judith N. Shklar. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996, p. 263–279.

SHKLAR, Judith N. Squaring the hermeneutical circle. In: SHKLAR, Judith N.; HOFFMANN, Stanley (Ed.). Political thought and political thinkers. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998a, p. 75-93.

SHKLAR, Judith N. Subversive genealogies. In: SHKLAR, Judith N.; HOFFMANN, Stanley (Ed.). Political thought and political thinkers. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998b, p. 132-160.

SHKLAR, Judith N. Rights in the liberal tradition. In: Political Studies, v. 71, n. 2, 2023, p. 279–294.

STAROBINSKI, Jean. Jean–Jacques Rousseau: a transparência e o obstáculo. Tradução de Maria Lúcia Machado. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1991.

STULLEROVA, Kamila. The knowledge of suffering: on Judith Shklar’s “Putting Cruelty First”. In: Contemporary political theory, v. 13, n. 1, 2013, p. 23–45.

WILLIAMS, Bernard. In the beginning was the deed: realism and moralism in political argument. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2005.