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Martin Luther King on Fear and Fearlessness

Drawing on my book, The Emotions of Nonviolence, I argue that King’s famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is not merely a justification of civil disobedience but is also and perhaps even primarily an essay on political motivation. It aims to address a central problem in democratic theory: namely, how can and ought we motivate the (racially) oppressed to engage in civil disobedience or, as King called it, nonviolent direct action. King’s answer is that we must appeal to the political emotions, both positive and negative. In this chapter, I discuss how rational and legitimate fear can stand in the way of political action and how King hoped to overcome this kind of fear through fearlessness. I also discuss the relevance of King’s ideas to the current political situation in the US.

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This is an online event, available on the Centre for Ethics YouTube Channel, on Friday, March 25. Channel subscribers will receive a notification at the start. (For other events in the series, and to subscribe, visit YouTube.com/c/CentreforEthics.)

Meena Krishnamurthy
Philosophy
Queen’s University

Fri, Mar 25, 2022
12:30 PM - 01:45 PM
Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto
200 Larkin