Commentary

• Self-Interest Rightly Understood

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  Mansfield, Harvey C. “Self-Interest Rightly Understood.” Political Theory 23, no. 1 (February 1, 1995): 48–66.

• The Passions and the Interests: Political Arguments for Capitalism before Its Triumph

  - Hirschman, Albert O. The Passions and the Interests: Political Arguments for Capitalism before Its Triumph. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997.
  In this volume, Albert Hirschman reconstructs the intellectual climate of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to illuminate the intricate ideological transformation that occurred, wherein the pursuit of material interests –so long condemned as the… More

• Laws, Passion, and the Attractions of Right Action by Sharon Krause

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  Krause, Sharon R. “Laws, Passion, and the Attractions of Right Action in Montesquieu.” Philosophy & Social Criticism 32, no. 2 (March 1, 2006): 211–230.
  This article examines Montesquieu’s concept of natural law and treatment of legal customs in conjunction with his theory of moral psychology. It explores his effort to entwine the rational procedural quality of laws with the substantive principles that… More

• The Propriety of Liberty: Persons, Passions, and Judgement in Modern Political Thought

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  Kelly, Duncan. The Propriety of Liberty Persons, Passions and Judgement in Modern Political Thought. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011.
  From the publisher: In this book, Duncan Kelly excavates, from the history of modern political thought, a largely forgotten claim about liberty as a form of propriety. By rethinking the intellectual and historical foundations of modern accounts of freedom, he… More

• A Virtue for Courageous Minds: Moderation in French Political Thought, 1748-1830

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  Crăiuțu, Aurelian. A Virtue for Courageous Minds: Moderation in French Political Thought, 1748-1830. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012.
  Political moderation is the touchstone of democracy, which could not function without compromise and bargaining, yet it is one of the most understudied concepts in political theory. How can we explain this striking paradox? Why do we often underestimate the… More