Focusing on the new theories of human motivation that emerged during the transition from feudalism to the modern period, this is the first book of new essays on the relationship between politics and the passions from Machiavelli to Bentham. Contributors address the crisis of moral and philosophical discourse in the early modern period; the necessity of inventing a new way of describing the relation between reflection and action, and private and public selves; the disciplinary regulation of the body; and the ideological constitution of identity. The collection as a whole asks whether a discourse of the passions might provide a critical perspective on the politics of subjectivity. Whatever their specific approach to the question of ideology, all the essays reconsider the legacy of the passions in modern political theory and the importance of the history of politics and the passions for modern political debates. Contributors, in addition to the editors, are Nancy Armstrong, Judith Butler, Riccardo Caporali, Howard Caygill, Patrick Coleman, Frances Ferguson, John Guillory, Timothy Hampton, John P. McCormick, and Leonard Tennenhouse.

Introduction by VICTORIA KAHN AND NEIL SACCAMANO 1Tempering the Grandi's Appetite to Oppress: The Dedication by and Intention of Machiavelli's Discourses by JOHN P. MCCORMICK 7
Difficult Engagements: Private Passion and Public Service in by Montaigne's Essais by TIMOTHY HAMPTON 30
The Bachelor State: Philosophy and Sovereignty in Bacon's by New Atlantis by JOHN GUILLORY 49
Hobbes's Revolution by DANIELA COLI 75
Happy Tears: Baroque Politics in Descartes's Passions de l'âme by VICTORIA KAHN 93
The Desire to Live: Spinoza's Ethics under Pressure by JUDITH BUTLER 111
A Mind for Passion: Locke and Hutcheson on Desire by NANCY ARMSTRONG AND LEONARD TENNENHOUSE 131
Rousseau's Quarrel with Gratitude by PATRICK COLEMAN 151
Parting with Prejudice: Hume, Identity, and Aesthetic by Universality by NEIL SACCAMANO 175
Vico, "Tenderness," and "Barbarism" by RICCARDO CAPORALI 196
Kant and the Relegation of the Passions by HOWARD CAYGILL 217
Beliefs and Emotions (from Stanley Fish to Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill) by FRANCES FERGUSON 231
Contributors 251
Notes 253
Index 311