On Mercy

by Malcolm Bull

Overview

Is mercy more important than justice?

Since antiquity, mercy has been regarded as a virtue. Yet by the end of the eighteenth century, mercy had been exiled from political life. In this book, Malcolm Bull analyses and challenges the Enlightenment’s rejection of mercy. Political realism, Bull argues, demands recognition of the foundational role of mercy in society. If we are vulnerable to harm from others, we are in need of their mercy. By restoring the primacy of mercy over justice, we may constrain the powerful and release the agency of the powerless. An important contribution to political philosophy from an inventive thinker, On Mercy makes a persuasive case for returning this neglected virtue to the heart of political thought.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691217451
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	04/20/2021
Pages:	204
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Malcolm Bull is Professor of Art and the History of Ideas at the University of Oxford and a Senior Associate Research Fellow of Christ Church, Oxford. He is the author of books on Vico and Nietzsche.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"In his brilliant treatise On Mercy, Malcolm Bull recuperates this ancient notion, displaced in modern political thought, and powerfully reinserts mercy at the heart of contemporary politics. In a sweeping, masterful, erudite history ranging from Seneca and Cicero through Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Montaigne to Shklar and Bernard Williams, Bull demonstrates that politics, in the end, is nothing more or less than power mercifully exercised. The only way that we, as a society, will overcome the dangers of global climate change or the threat of AI apocalypse will be to adopt a politics of mercy. I urge you to read On Mercy; it is a book for our times."—Bernard E. Harcourt, author of The Illusion of Free Markets

"In this thoughtful and highly original study, Malcolm Bull develops a vision of social life as dependent on humans' willingness to exercise mercy. He shows how this novel approach can serve as a corrective to the traditional excessive focus on the state and on justice, which has been characteristic of some recent political thinking, and how it throws unexpected light on a wide variety of pressing issues in politics."—Raymond Geuss, author of Changing the Subject: Philosophy from Socrates to Adorno

“There’s no one quite like Malcolm Bull. Part of the pleasure of this book is that it leaves readers to do some of the thinking for themselves: it is thought-provoking in just the right ways.”—Christopher Brooke, University of Cambridge

“It’s always a pleasure to be in the company of Malcolm Bull’s mind, and this perceptive and interesting book is no exception.”—Sophie Smith, University of Oxford

Editorial Reviews

One of New Statesman's Books of the Year 2019

From the Publisher