Abating Anger

A posting in peasoup by Antti Kauppinen suggests that rage might be a moral emotion. Rage is uncontrollable anger. This posting will, for the most part, be concerned with more moderate anger and whether such anger can be justified and when it can ever serve any useful purpose. I will argue that whilst anger is dangerous that nonetheless controlled anger can sometimes serve some useful purpose. 

To the Stoics anger was a harmful emotion. Seneca describes the mischief anger does as follows,

“no plague has cost the human race more dear: you will see slaughterings and poisonings, accusations and counter-accusations, sacking of cities, ruin of whole peoples, the persons of princes sold into slavery by auction, torches applied to roofs, and fires not merely confined within city-walls but making whole tracts of country glow with hostile flame. See the foundations of the most celebrated cities hardly now to be discerned; they were ruined by anger. See deserts extending for many miles without an inhabitant: they have been desolated.” Sophia-project, Anger book 1.

What sort of anger was Seneca talking about? There is uncontrolled anger and anger that has been tempered or abated some degree. I would suggest that Seneca was talking about uncontrolled anger which I believe could be better characterised as rage. I will consider whether rage might be regarded as a moral emotion as suggested by Kauppinen at the end of this posting. I now want to consider whether tempered or controlled anger can ever be a useful emotion. 

Let us accept that anger has evolutionary roots. It might be argued that because of these roots anger must retain some purpose. However such an argument seems to be unconvincing. Evolution has given us a taste for sweet and fatty things. Such a taste might have been an advantage to a hunter gatherer but is a disadvantage to anyone living in an affluent city. Similarly anger might of advantage to a hunter gatherer but might be a disadvantage to a city dweller. Human progress may now be too rapid for evolution to keep pace with. Let it be accepted that emotions in general are useful to us. Hume argued that reason is slave of the passions. Nonetheless as suggested above the specific emotion of anger might no longer remain useful to us. It might be argued that in practice we cannot simply eliminate a single emotion which has ceased to be useful to us, such as anger, without damaging our capacity to feel the emotions which remain useful to us. If we eliminate all anger then perhaps we will damage our capacity to feel empathy, see anger and empathy. I will now offer two examples which suggest that it might be wrong to eliminate anger in all circumstances. Each example will suggest further reasons as to why we shouldn’t eliminate all anger because our anger can be useful in some circumstances.

My first example concerns anger at Donald Trump’s policies on immigration, his lying together with his underlying racist and misogynist views. Should we simply transmute our anger into useful actions aimed at combatting these evils as suggested by Martha Nussbaum? (1) I would suggest that we shouldn’t because if we do so our actions might be interpreted as a sign of weakness, this is especially true in the case of Trump. Sometimes when faced by wrongdoing we must signal our determination to fight that wrongdoing and perhaps retaining some anger helps in this signalling. A further example might be provide by those who lived under apartheid in South Africa and were unjustly disenfranchised perhaps their anger signalled their determination to oppose the apartheid. However caution is needed as excessive anger can damage rationality and degenerate into hate. In spite of this need for caution I would suggest that when fighting injustice that retaining some controlled anger is useful in this fight by signalling our determination to continue in this fight.

My second example comes from the Vietnam War. In this war Hugh Thompson’s anger helped him, to courageously save others from being massacred at My Lai. Was Thompson’s anger was justified? Was his anger useful in helping stop the massacre? Might not a calm rational moral person also have helped to stop the massacre? Intuitively his anger seems both to have been justifiable and useful.  However our intuitions are not always reliable and I will now attempt to show his anger was useful. Some emotions such as sadness don’t seem to have a clear focus or target. Some might class such emotions as moods and moods are hard to justify. Other emotions such as anger are intentional and are focussed on some target. Let us accept that morality matters. I will now argue intentional emotions can be justified by moral concerns and my argument will focus on anger. Intentional emotions can be seen as sending a signal that something is wrong and needs attending to. If I see someone forcefully pushing into a queue I might feel angry at the perceived injustice. If this person is unjustly trying to displace other members of the queue then my anger is justified because my anger focusses my in attention on the injustice. However if this person is attempting to join her partner in the middle of the queue then no injustice is taking place and my anger is unjustified. Let us accept that anger can be justified by focussing our attention moral concerns. However when anger focusses our attention we must ensure that we focus accurately on those whose wrong actions are the cause of our anger. Hugh Thompson accurately focussed his anger on the wrong actions of the perpetrators of the massacre at My Lai. The perpetrators of the massacre were also angry but their focus on the cause their anger was inaccurate. The villagers massacred were mere bystanders and did nothing wrong, did not cause the situation which lead to the perpetrators anger. The perpetrators anger was inaccurately focussed, resulting in them unjustly targeting innocent women and children. Let us accept anger can be justified by alerting us to some moral wrong. Let us also accept that once anger has alerted us to some wrong that our anger should be translated into actions which alleviate the wrong when this is possible targeting those who cause the wrong. However does translating our anger into action mean our anger should cease completely or continue at some lower level?

I have argued that anger can be justified by alerting us to some moral wrong. At this point I want to compare my position to that of the stoics. Stoics argue that because the cause of someone’s anger is some event in the past and because the past cannot be changed anger is irrational. More generally the stoics argued that emotions are irrational and that we should seek to master them. What do stoics mean by mastering anger? I have argued above that anger isn’t irrational because it alerts us to some wrongdoing. Some stoics might be prepared to accept that anger sometimes alerts us that to the fact that something is wrong. After all if they refuse to accept the above, are they prepared to accept that anger simply occurs at random without any meaningful reference to the context in which it takes place? In response to the above a stoic might suggest that emotions such as anger and rationality occupy completely separate domains and that we should only pay attention to reason and seek eliminate our anger. Plato also believed emotions and reason occupied separate domains and used the example of a charioteer controlling unruly horses as a metaphor for reason controlling the emotions. My stoic might argue whilst hunter gatherers found anger useful in alerting them to wrongdoing in the tribe that nowadays reason alone can alert us to wrongdoing, anger has become a redundant emotion. Stoics believed in cultivating virtue, but if reason alone can detect wrongdoing stoics might also have made good deontologists. A stoic might proceed to argue that reason always alerts us to wrongdoing and does so more reliably than unreliable anger. In the light of the above she might suggest that we should try to eliminate any anger because reason offers a better way to alert us to wrongdoing and anger might interfere with our rationality. To her mastering anger means eliminating anger. One response to the above might to suggest that emotions and reason do not occupy completely distinct domains, I will not pursue this response further here. A second response is to point out that whilst we are no longer hunter gatherers we are human beings and human beings cannot simply eliminate emotions such as anger. My stoic might concede that we cannot simply eliminate anger but argue that when we experience anger we should move on using reason and try to suppress our anger with reason. Mastering our anger now means suppressing it. Such a position is similar to that of Martha Nussbaum who argues we should transmute our anger into useful actions. I have some sympathy for such a position. However it might be better if we sought to control our anger rather than simply suppress it. If we merely suppress our anger rather than control it then our anger might suddenly reappear, indeed it is feasible suppressed anger might fester and grow. When we eliminate or suppress our anger we do not experience anger, the same is not true of controlling anger. To control anger we must retain some anger. However we must stop simply being angry and realise we are angry. Once we stop simply being angry and become aware we are angry we can reflect on and monitor our anger. Is our anger justified? Is our anger excessive? Is it useful? I would argue mastering our anger should mean controlling our anger. It seems that my stoic would argue that we should try not to become angry and if we do become angry we should suppress it, Nussbaum would argue that once we have become angry we should transform our anger into useful actions aimed at correcting the injustice which caused it, whilst I would argue that once we have become angry we should control our anger and use it to enable us to carry out useful actions aimed at correcting the injustice. In the above I have considered eliminating, suppressing and controlling anger from a purely theoretical viewpoint, it is possible that empirical research might mean my views should be amended.  My stoic and Nussbaum believe maintaining anger is both counterproductive and wrong, I believe maintaining some limited form of anger is justified because doing so helps in controlling anger.

I now want to argue that we have a further reason to maintain some anger. What sort of signal is an emotion sending? It is sending a signal that something needs attending to. Emotions are somewhat analogous to alarms. According to Michael Brady emotions facilitate understanding. They do so by facilitating,

“reassessment through the capture and consumption of attention; emotions enable us to gain a “true and stable” evaluative judgement. (2)

I accept that anger requires that we should reassess the situation. However I would argue anger not only captures our attention but in some circumstances help us to retain our attention, helps us to retain our focus. Let us assume that someone is angry because she has been bypassed for promotion due to sexism. Perhaps if she attends to the circumstances of her being bypassed for promotion she finds that the person selected really was better qualified for the position than her. In this scenario her anger might be judged to be inappropriate and should cease.  However let us assume her anger was justified but her employer tackles the injustice. A stoic would argue all her anger should be abated. It seems to me that by simply suppressing her anger she deprives herself of a useful tool for focusing on the injustice of more general sexism. At My Lai Hugh Thompson’s anger helped him maintain his focus on stopping the massacre. Perhaps if he hadn’t maintained his anger his attention might have wandered and he would have considered the dangers to himself, his future or the damage making the public aware of the massacre would do to the US army. Blind anger is never useful, but it seems plausible that some form of controlled anger might be useful in maintaining our focus on some injustice.

I have argued that anger is a useful emotion when it is controlled. However there are dangers associated with the use of anger. It has been suggested that emotions are somewhat analogous to alarms. Alarms are meant to be attended to and switched off. Anger should be attended to and if unjustified should cease. However I have argued that if anger is justified it should be attended to and controlled rather than simply suppressed. Nonetheless if someone simply remains angry and does not reassess her situation on becoming angry then her anger serves no purpose and is damaging. I would suggest there is some mean to anger in much the same way as Aristotle suggested there was a mean to the virtues. Someone might be excessively prone to anger causing her to focus her attention on trivial matters. She might also be very slow to anger and this slowness might deprive her of a better understanding her situation.

 Lastly I want to return to my starting point and consider Kauppinen’s suggestion that rage might be a moral emotion. Kauppinen suggests rage is a negative feeling that is a cousin of anger and hate. He argues rage motivates you to destroy, to get physical, preferably destroying what you see as the obstacle to justice. I have suggested that rage is simply unabated anger. According to the Cambridge Dictionary rage is a period of extreme or violent anger. According to the Oxford Dictionary rage is violent anger, fury, usually manifested in looks, words, or action. It would seem that rage is not a cousin of anger but an uncontrolled form of anger. I am quite happy to agree with Kauppinen that rage might be justified in some circumstances. Rage against apartheid, Trump’s policies and the perpetrators of the My Lai massacre can be justified. However I am not so happy to believe such rage is a useful emotion. I have argued above that anger needs to be abated and controlled it follows that if rage is a form of uncontrolled anger that rage is unproductive. Anger helps someone reassess her situation and take action. If rage is simply uncontrolled anger then whilst rage may be justified it is not a useful emotion. Indeed rage may be counterproductive because the enraged simply rages and fails to reassess her situation.

1. MARTHA C. NUSSBAUM, 2015, Transitional Anger. Journal of the American Philosophical Association, page 53.
2. Michael Brady, 2013, Emotional Insight; The Epistemic Role of Emotional Experience, Oxford University Press, page147.

Nussbaum, Transitional Anger and Unconditional Forgiveness

Charles Griswold argues that forgiveness is a kind of transaction and as a result there are certain conditions attached to the transaction which mean that one cannot truly forgive without fulfilling these conditions (1). In response it might be pointed out that conditional love is inferior to unconditional love. It might then be argued by analogy that conditional forgiveness, transactional forgiveness, is inferior to unconditional forgiveness. In this posting I will argue this doesn’t hold and that transactional forgiveness is morally more desirable than unconditional forgiveness because of the message it sends to the offender.

Martha Nussbaum rejects the idea of transactional forgiveness as suggested by Griswold and goes further by arguing that there are also problems with unconditional forgiveness. The problem with all sorts of forgiveness according to Nussbaum is that it is essentially backward looking and attached ideas of payback. She argues rather than forgiving we should engage with offenders in a spirit of active love (2). In response to such arguments Griswold suggests that for a victim just to give unconditional forgiveness means she lacks self-respect and that others will also fail to respect her. Intuitively if someone who has been wronged and the offender exhibits no remorse or indeed continues offending, holds no resentment, then the victim lacks self-respect. Intuitively it also seems morally wrong, not just hard, for someone who has been sexually assaulted to unconditionally forgive her assailant.

In this posting I don’t want to examine a lack of respect. Instead I want examine two different objections to unconditional forgiveness. First, I will argue that in some circumstances unconditional forgiveness means the victim far from having too little self-respect, means she actually has too much and is over proud. Secondly I will argue unconditional forgiveness by the victim harms the offender. Let it be accepted that all forgiveness whether unconditional or transactional means letting go of resentment. Intuitively this appears to be true for it seems impossible to believe a victim truly forgives her transgressor if she still bears resentment towards him. For the sake of argument let us assume Sue has been morally harmed by John and that she has unconditionally forgiven him. In this context because Sue’s forgiveness is unconditional it is possible that John might remain quite happy with the fact that he has morally harmed Sue and would be fully prepared to do so again.

Let us examine Sue’s motives in unconditionally forgiving John. According to Nussbaum sometimes,

“the person who purports to forgive unconditionally may assume the moral high ground in a superior and condescending way.” (3)

If we accept Nussbaum view, then it is possible that Sue’s underlying motive in unconditionally forgiving John is to feel good in a superior way. Sue’s motive displays a certain moral arrogance. Such a motive does not justify unconditional forgiveness. However, let us assume that Sue’s motive is not to feel superior but simply a desire to act in a moral manner.

Let us examine the above assumption. I now want to present two arguments why even in this context Sue’s unconditional forgiveness might be flawed. Both arguments will be based on Sue’s focus. Firstly, I will argue that by unconditionally forgiving John to satisfy her desire to act in moral manner Sue might still be exhibiting an excessive moral pride. Before proceeding I must make it clear I am not attacking limited moral pride, moreover I believe that some limited moral pride is a good thing. How then can Sue exhibit excessive moral pride by unconditionally forgiving John? It seems possible to me that Sue’s motives for forgiving John might have nothing actually to do with John. Let us assume Sue’s unconditional forgiveness is due to her focus on acting morally and isn’t a case of moral grandstanding. Her focus might be flawed if it focusses exclusively on Sue’s behaviour because her focus is too narrow. If Sue focusses exclusively on her own behaviour, focusses on herself, then she seems to be exhibiting excessive pride. Nussbaum for instance might argue such a limited focus is unhealthy because it contains a narcissistic element. It follows that if underlying Sue’s unconditional forgiveness is an excessive pride that her motive for this forgiveness is flawed, indeed it might be argued that by excessive cherishing of herself she damages herself. However, it does not automatically follow that her unconditional forgiveness of John cannot be justified by other reasons just because Sue’s motivation is flawed.

Let us assume Sue’s motive for her unconditional forgiveness is simply focussed on acting morally and has nothing to do with excessive pride. This brings us to the second of my two arguments. I want to argue that whilst Sue’s simple desire to act morally is admirable the way she enacts this desire is flawed. I will base my argument once again on Sue’s narrow focus. In order to act in a true moral way people must consider all moral agents and not just a select few, a particular morality is a partial morality. Any non-partial system of morality must include those who harm us. I would suggest that Sue’s narrow focus on unconditionally forgiving John means she fails to genuinely consider his moral needs. Sue is only considering herself morally and disregarding the moral needs of John. By withdrawing her resentment Sue is withdrawing something that might help John become a better person. Resentment at wrongdoing is not simply something the victim feels; resentment also sends a signal to the offender that he is causing moral harm. It seems to me that by unconditionally forgiving John Sue is denying John this signal which might help him become a better person. Agnes Callard makes a similar argument with respect to revenge when she argues that “revenge is how we hold one another morally responsible” (4). It follows Sue’s unconditional forgiveness of John whilst admirable in some ways is nonetheless flawed because she ignores John’s moral needs or is mistaken about what will help John become a better person.

I have argued that conditional is superior to unconditional forgiveness however it might be argued by some that my conclusion is unsound. They might point out that unconditional forgiveness seems to set an excellent example of how to love others and this reason for supporting unconditional forgiveness outweighs the reasons against I have advanced above. In response I would argue the recognition of others as moral agents is even of even more fundamental importance to morality than any possible demonstration of love. Without this basic recognition no system of morality can even get started. In my example it seems to me if Sue unconditionally forgives John then she is acting in a way she believes is best for John and by so doing she is failing to recognise him as a fully moral agent.

Does accepting that unconditional forgiveness might be harmful mean we must accept the type of transactional forgiveness favoured by Griswold? Nussbaum sets out the long list conditions necessary for Griswold’s conditions for transactional forgiveness to take place (5). She argues that going through such a process is a humiliating one smacking of payback, I am inclined to agree. Griswold’s transactional forgiveness makes sense if we accept a traditional view of anger which includes payback. However, Nussbaum argues ideas of anger involving payback doesn’t make sense. Once we see traditional anger doesn’t make sense we can transmute it into action according to Nussbaum. Traditional anger,

“quickly puts itself out of business, in that even the residual focus on punishing the offender is soon seen as part of a set of projects for improving both offenders and society.” (6)

I am again inclined to agree with Nussbaum that anger should be transmuted into something useful. I am inclined to agree because I believe like Michael Brady that emotions, including anger, act in a way analogous to alarms focussing our attention on the need to do something (7). Alarms are meant to be attended to, an unattended car alarm is annoying, unattended anger can be damaging. However, even if unattended anger is harmful this doesn’t mean anger is harmful. Unattended alarms are annoying but alarms are useful. Unattended anger may be harmful but anger is useful, anger draws attention on the need to do something. According to Nussbaum anger should “focuses on future welfare from the start. Saying ‘Something should be done about this”. (8) If we accept that anger should be attended to, be transmuted, then it seems to me Griswold’s transactional idea of forgiveness is in trouble because the transactions involve payback which seem to me to be related to un-transmuted anger.

If we forgive someone and we do not adopt Griswold’s ideas on transactional forgiveness are we forced somewhat reluctantly to conclude that our forgiveness should be unconditional? I don’t believe it does. What does it mean to forgive? If we define forgiveness as simply as relinquishing anger and its associated desire for revenge, then a commitment to transitional anger also means commitment to unconditional forgiveness. It means even if John remains quite happy with the fact that he has morally harmed Sue and remains prepared to do so again that if Sue translates her anger that she forgives him unconditionally. However, forgiving someone might mean also be defined as the normalisation of relations between the forgiver and the forgiven. Translating anger in this context doesn’t simply mean moving on. Transitional anger means looking to the future, moving on. Transitional anger also means looking back to the past, past wrongdoing cannot be ignored after all it is the reason why we must look to the future. This approach doesn’t of necessity involve a formal transactional process involving payback. It does however mean that certain minimum conditions not involving payback must be met. Relations cannot be normalised if a wrongdoer disputes the facts or wrongness of his action. In this situation victims are entitled to protect themselves by withholding trust. Trust is an essential part of normal human relations if someone is always wary of another their relationship cannot said to be a normal one. Protecting oneself doesn’t need involving payback. It follows forgiveness requires that the wrongdoer must accept responsibility for the act and acknowledge its wrongness for normal relations to be met. It further follows if someone accepts transitional anger that his acceptance does not commit her to unconditional forgiveness which might harm the wrongdoing.

1.    Charles Griswold, 2007, Forgiveness, Cambridge University Press.
2.    Martha Nussbaum, 2016, Anger and Forgiveness, Oxford University Press, Chapter 3.
3.    Nussbaum, chapter 3.

4.    Agnes Callard, 2020, On Anger, Boston Review Forum, page 15
5.    List of Griswold’s conditions as outlined by Nussbaum.
·       Acknowledge she was the responsible agent.
·       Repudiate her deed (by acknowledging it. Express regret to the injured at having caused this particular injury to her
·        Commit to becoming a better short of person who does not commit injury and show this commitment through deeds as well as words.
·       Show how she understands from the injured person’s perspective the damage done by the injury. Offer a narrative of accounting for how she came to do the wrong, how the wrongdoing does not express the totality of the person and how she became worthy of approbation.
·       Acknowledge she was the responsible agent. Repudiate her deed (by acknowledging its wrongness) and herself as the cause.
·       Express regret to the injured at having caused this particular injury to her.
·       Commit to becoming a better short of person who does not commit injury and show this commitment through deeds as well as words. 
·       Show how she understands from the injured person’s perspective the damage done by the injury. Offer a narrative of accounting for how she came to do the wrong, how the wrongdoing does not express the totality of the person and how she became worthy of approbation.
 
6.    MARTHA C. NUSSBAUM, 2015, Transitional Anger. Journal of the American Philosophical Association, page 51.
7.    Michael S. Brady, 2013, Emotional Insight; The Epistemic Role of Emotional Experience, Oxford University Press
8.    MARTHA C. NUSSBAUM, 2015, Transitional Anger. Journal of the American Philosophical Association, page 54.

1

Traditional and Nussbaum's Transitional Anger

The world is an angry place and it seems this anger is increasing, see for instance why are Americans so angry? Anger is a basic emotion which goes back into our evolutionary past and is one of the five basic emotions everyone seems to recognise according to Paul Ekman’s studies. In the past anger must have served some useful purpose but is anger still useful in today’s culture? Martha Nussbaum defines two types of anger. Traditional anger which,

“involves, conceptually, a wish for things to go badly, somehow, for the offender in a way that is envisaged, somehow, however vaguely, as a payback for the offense” (1)

Nussbaum also defines transitional anger as follows.

“There are many cases in which one gets standardly angry first, thinking about some type of payback, and then, in a cooler moment, heads for the Transition.” (2)

According to Nussbaum traditional anger can transmute into transitional anger,

“quickly puts itself out of business, in that even the residual focus on punishing the offender is soon seen as part of a set of projects for improving both offenders and society.” (3)

The type of anger given to us by evolution appears to be traditional anger but we are no longer hunter gatherers and so perhaps traditional anger no longer serves its original purpose and we should always transmute it into transitional anger. Perhaps if such a transmutation is possible our society might become less angry. In this posting I will argue that whilst in most situations we should transmute our anger into useful action there are some situations in which it is right to maintain anger.

Stoics such as Seneca argued that anger is a dangerous emotion, a type of temporary madness and ought to be eliminated or controlled. Emotions aren’t simply somatic responses. According to Michael Brady emotions act as a kind of mental alarm. They do so by facilitating,

“reassessment through the capture and consumption of attention; emotions enable us to gain a “true and Stable” evaluative judgement.” (3)

Alarms need attending to and this requires action, anger requires attention and action rather than simply control or elimination. Simply controlling anger leads to resentment which is bad both for individuals and society. Traditional and transitional anger lead to different sorts of actions and I will examine the appropriateness of these different actions in our society.

If we accept anger is a kind of warning about some harm then this explains why being angry makes no sense in some situations. However if someone becomes angry when diagnosed with cancer her anger does not act as a warning. But anger isn’t just a general warning about any situation, it’s a warning about social situations. Anger should be a call to action connected to some wrongdoing. Anger as traditionally envisioned has a target and a focus. The target is the person or institution which inflicted the wrongdoing and the focus is the wrongdoing itself. This wrongdoing causes harm and the call for action created by anger seeks to address this harm. Traditional anger and transitional anger seek to address this harm in different ways. Traditional anger seeks to mend the harm done by making the offender suffer, changing the status of the offender. Nussbaum regards this as a kind of magical thinking rooted in our past. Traditional anger, as so conceived, is not only rooted in our past but deals with past harm, however the harm is done and making the offender suffer does not appear to mitigate this harm. Nussbaum argues we should reject such a concept and replace it by the concept of transition anger. Transitional anger doesn’t focus on status instead it focuses on future welfare from the start by trying to mitigate the harm involved. I agree with Nussbaum that our concept of anger sometimes needs updating but will argue that traditional anger still has an important part play.

Traditional anger is concerned with the difference in status between the target and the victim.  Concern for this difference in status can lead to non-productive behaviour. Nussbaum gives an excellent example.

“People in academic life who love to diss scholars who have criticized them and who believe that this does them some good, have to be focusing only on reputation and status, since it’s obvious that injuring someone else’s reputation does not make one’s own work better than it was before, or correct whatever flaws the other person has found in it.” (5)

Nussbaum’s example clearly shows concern with differences in status can lead to rather silly behaviour provided anger is only concerned with the past and present wrongs. If traditional anger is only focussed on past and present harms then perhaps we should always transmute our traditional anger into transitional anger provided of course we are the sort of creatures capable of carrying out such a transmutation. Greg Caruso believes empirical evidence suggests that the strike back emotion plays an important role in our moral responsibility beliefs and practices making such a transmutation difficult, see psychology today . However anger is sometimes focussed on the future, indeed if anger acts as some kind of alarm requiring action then it’s very nature means it must contain a forward looking element.

Let us accept that anger should trigger a forward looking element. However even if we accept the above it doesn’t automatically mean we should always try to transmute traditional anger into transitional anger. Nussbaum herself suggests that transitional anger,

“focuses on future welfare from the start. Saying ‘Something should be done about this” (6)

Let us now accept that transitional anger is forward looking by seeking to alleviate the harm which caused anger.

I now want to argue that the nature of the harm involved should determine whether traditional or transitional anger should be the appropriate response. Nussbaum uses a case of rape as an example.

“Offender O has raped Angela’s close friend Rebecca on the campus where both Angela and Rebecca are students. Angela has true beliefs about what has occurred, about how seriously damaging it is, and about the wrongful intentions involved: O, she knows, is mentally competent, understood the wrongfulness of his act.” (7)

Angela is justifiably angry but Nussbaum suggest nonetheless that she should try to transmute her raw traditional anger into transitional anger.

“Angela is likely to take a mental turn toward a different set of future-directed attitudes. Insofar as she really wants to help Rebecca and women in Rebecca’s position …..  helping Rebecca get on with her life, but also setting up help groups, trying to publicize the problem of campus rape and to urge the authorities to deal with it better.” (8)

Let us assume O was Rebecca’s boyfriend, sees he acted wrongfully, is remorseful and is no more likely to rape someone in the future than anyone else. With these caveats in place then punishing O will not lessen the harm done to Rebecca and I am inclined to agree with Nussbaum that Angela would be right to transmute her traditional anger into transitional anger. Such a transmutation might prove difficult due to angers usefulness in our evolutionary past and even if such a transmutation could be achieved such a case should still involve justice. In these circumstances I would suggest the justice should be restorative justice.

Some harms are not physical, some involve intimidation and others involve recognition. In what follows I will argue that maintaining our anger, rather than transmuting it, is a more appropriate response to both of these harms. In some sports a bad tackle by player A might injure player B, the physical injury inflicted by A cannot be undone by B causing A to suffer, but if A’s purpose was to intimidate B then B’s retaliation causing A to suffer might well target A’s intimidation. Maintaining traditional anger would be more appropriate in this situation than transitional anger. A wife’s abuse by her husband in order to intimidate her might also be better adressed by maintaining traditional anger, provided of course this is possible. Intimidation whilst a serious problem is not a widespread problem. A failure to recognise the rights of others is a more widespread problem. This failure might be due to inconsideration, a lack of attention, or even intentional. Let us reconsider Nussbaum’s example. Let us assume O doesn’t recognise the wrongfulness of his actions and also doesn’t recognise women merit the same status as men. In this scenario it seems to me that maintaining traditional anger would be a more appropriate response than transitional anger. I accept that the harm done to Rebecca cannot be undone by making O suffer, nonetheless O’s continuing failure to recognise women as having the same rights as men might be targeted by making O suffer, might be addressed by traditional anger. It appears in cases in which anger is generated by a lack of recognition that raw traditional anger ought to be the appropriate response. Anger in this situation must still be transmuted into action appropriate to gaining this recognition and this action might justifiably include inflicting harm on the offender in order to achieve this recognition. I believe the above appearance needs to be qualified. At the beginning of this post I remarked people appear to be getting angrier, perhaps this anger is because our society is not very good at recognising individuals. Useful anger must be effective anger. I would suggest targeting society using traditional anger is not useful and it would be better to employ transitional anger. The boundary between offenders who should be targeted by traditional anger or transitional anger is hard to define. Clearly society as a whole should be targeted by transitional anger and some individuals by traditional anger but what about corporations and other organisations?

What conclusions can be drawn from the above? Dylan Thomas asks us “not go gently into that good night but rage, rage against the dying of the light.” If anger is an alarm then rage, anger, at those things we can do nothing about is inappropriate. Anger if it is to be a useful emotion must be capable of being transmuted into something else. It follows in situations in which a transmutation of any sort is impossible anger that is not a useful emotion and should be avoided provided this is possible. Secondly there are some situations in which the focus of anger is not ongoing and transitional anger seems the right sort of anger to employ, once again provided this is possible. In such situation the infliction of harm on the wrongdoer seems to be pointless. Retributive justice might require some harm but I am considering anger in isolation from justice. I have suggested above that in such situations restorative rather than retributive justice would be more appropriate. According to Nussbaum in such situations anger should be transmuted into actions aimed at a set of projects for improving both offenders and society. Lastly there are situations in which the focus of anger is intimidation or a failure of recognition, in these situations traditional anger ought to be employed and the infliction of harm on the wrongdoer might be appropriate. In this situation the aim of anger mustn’t be payback but recognition and the anger employed should be transmuted into actions appropriate to achieving this recognition. 

1. MARTHA C. NUSSBAUM, 2015, Transitional Anger. Journal of the American Philosophical Association, page 46.
2. Nussbaum, page 53.
3. Nussbaum, page 51.
4. Michael Brady, 2013, Emotional Insight; The Epistemic Role of Emotional Experience, Oxford University Press, page147.
5. Nussbaum, page 49.
6. Nussbaum, page 54.
7. Nussbaum, page 46.
8. Nussbaum, page 49