Lonely hearts: Tocqueville and Democracy.

Authors

  • Herb Karlfriedrich
  • Sarah Rebecca Strömel

Keywords:

Tocqueville, Democracy, Soft Despotism, Solitude, Heart, lndividualism

Abstract

Concerning the heart within the history of ideas, Alexis de Tocqueville is rather unknown - wrongfully. His theory of the democratic heart does not only deliver a privileged view on the pathologies of modern democracy, it also helps to decipher Tocqueville's own theory of democracy. In addition, Tocqueville's heart-reflections facilitate a better understanding of Individualism and Soft Despotism and they illuminate diagnoses and therapies of civic discomforts. Tocqueville's lonely hearts reflect the crisis of the modern world and - in a curious way - they also outline the ambivalent relationship between Tocqueville and democracy. To make it short: The importance of the lonely hearts can hardly be overestimated

Author Biographies

Herb Karlfriedrich

Professor of Political Philosophy at the University of Regensburg, Germany. He holds a PhD in Philosophy by the University of Bonn.

Sarah Rebecca Strömel

Research associate at the University of Regensburg, Germany. She holds a PhD in Political Science by the University of Regensburg

Downloads

Published

2023-12-05 — Updated on 2023-12-07

Versions

Issue

Vol. 2 (2022): International Human Rights Protection and Political Theory

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2023 Latin American Human Rights Studies

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

CC BY (Attribution 4.0 International): This license allows reusers to distribute, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, so long as attribution is given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use. See the full license.