One of the main goals of the book ?The Navigation of Feeling: A Framework for
the History of Emotions ? by William Reddy (Reddy, 2001) is to provide an
explanation of the events that led to the French Revolution and the
political regimes that followed the First Republic. What makes Reddy?s
approach unique is that, unlike standard political, social, economic and
similar approaches, it emphasizes the role that emotions and emotional
suffering have in the change of political regimes. For this purpose Reddy
introduces the concept of emotives. According to him, we use emotives to
express and change the emotions we feel. By expressing and changing
emotions, we reconsider the values we endorse, and in the times of crisis,
we sometimes embrace new ones. In this way, emotives play important role not
only in the emotional regulation but also in the formation of our identity.
Reddy argues that in the strict emotional regimes in which the use of
emotives is restricted individuals experience emotional suffering. Such
suffering is not relative to culture and can be objectively measured. Thus,
for Reddy some political regimes are better than others. Within this
theoretical framework Reddy describes the emotional regime of the French
society that preceded the revolution as strict. According to him, emotional
suffering that was caused by such regime played substantial role in bringing
about the revolution. In this paper I will argue that the emotional regime
of the 18th century France was not as strict as Reddy argues. What was
strict were the rules for how to behave not for the emotional expressions,
i.e. for the use of emotives. Thus, his analysis of the emotional
pre-revolutionary regime is not without weakness. I will conclude with some
problems that Reddy?s analysis of the acute emotional suffering
characteristic of the revolutionary period faces.
The Population of Fejér County in the 18th Century Through the Eyes of Foreign Travellers
