A Philosophy of Shame: A Revolutionary Emotion
Neat and erudite ... Gros beautifully describes how modernity has rendered us members of 'societies without honour' ... Gros, crisply translated by Andrew James Bliss, wears his learning lightly, but he draws on an extraordinary range of literary, religious, historical, cinematic, psychoanalytic and philosophical descriptions of shame ... But while Gros makes a great theoretical case for the revolutionary potential of shame, it didn’t leave me any more sure that, in reality, alchemically converting one’s shame into collective anger is the most effective mode (or mood) for bringing about social change.
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A Philosophy of Shame is never quite sprung. The book extends a rickety rope bridge between psychological shame—the I-must-bury-my-face kind that follows when one is caught being stupid, horny, or poor—and patriotic shame, which fells those in power with its righteous anger ... Gros’s efforts to isolate shame only prove how imbricated it is with guilt, humiliation, remorse, and rage ... That said, Gros still offers a diverting whistle-stop tour.
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An accessible and engaging introduction to philosophical conceptions of shame, Gros’s book also—less successfully—advocates for a form of shame that can, as its subtitle suggests, drive political change ... But Gros’s abbreviated treatment of online shaming doesn’t acknowledge the fact that social media is practically shameless by design, built for selling oneself ... Gros’s book tends to focus on the psychological roots of contemporary shamelessness while neglecting the money that often fuels it ... Gros’s hopes for a resurgence of shame that serves as a 'marker of solidarity' can ring hollow ... In the best sections of the book, Gros looks to Confucianism and ancient Greek philosophy to recover a positive understanding of shame.
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