Le Moyne College Calendar

Citizens, politicians, activists, and interest groups frequently treat anger as a legitimate political justification. That is, their anger shows why certain political actions or policies should not be undertaken.

Assistant Professor of Philosophy John Monteleone, Ph.D., considers, with the help of Aristotle, what sort of psychology an individual would have to have if anger were a legitimate political justification. He will then discuss two psycho-analytic claims about the origin and development of anger to argue that actual people (in contrast to the idealized or purified people we often take ourselves to be) likely do not meet this requirement. Dr. Monteleone's research interests center on philosophy of the emotions, an area of inquiry at the intersection of ethics and philosophy of mind. His articles have appeared in Philosophia and Dialectica. He earned his B.A. at Knox College and his Ph.D. at Syracuse University.