Fénelon and the political summum malum of self-love
| DOI | 10.1177/14748851211002016 |
| Published date | 01 July 2021 |
| Author | Gianna Englert |
| Date | 01 July 2021 |
| Subject Matter | Symposium on Ryan Hanley’s Fénelon |
Symposium on Ryan Hanley’s F
enelon EJPT
F
enelon and the
political summum
malum of self-love
Gianna Englert
Southern Methodist University, USA
Ryan Patrick Hanley, The Political Philosophy of F
enelon, Oxford University Press: New York, NY,
2020; 324 pp.: ISBN 9780190079635, US$39.95 (hbk)
Franc¸ois F
enelon, F
enelon: Moral and Political Writings, edited and translated by Ryan Patrick
Hanley, Oxford University Press: New York, NY, 2020; 286 pp.: ISBN 9780190079581, US$39.95
(hbk)
Abstract
In The Political Philosophy of F
enelon, Ryan Hanley argues that F
enelon was a realist who
aimed to elevate and educate self-love—rather than resist it—in order to avoid tyranny.
This roundtable article examines two of Fenelon’s arguments for how self-love, well-
directed, could circumvent a king’s absolutist and tyrannical inclinations: 1) the king’s
need to be loved and to love in turn, and 2) the relationship between faith and politics /
church and state. Contrasting F
enelon with Machiavelli, I question whether the ruler’s
“need-love” for his people leaves him susceptible to forms of domination or at least, as
Machiavelli warned, renders them politically weak. Given Hanley’s interest to recover
F
enelon for the present day, I conclude by arguing that the thinker’s insights about the
limiting role of well-directed self-love are inescapably tied to his critiques of absolutism.
The same need-love of the people, I argue, cannot similarly check executive power
under democracy. Nonetheless, F
enelon’s perspective remains valuable, as does
Hanley’s project of recovery, since democracies continue to reckon with particular
problems raised by self-love.
Corresponding author:
Gianna Englert, Southern Methodist University, 3300 University Blvd, 210 Carr Collins, Dallas, Texas 75275-
0221, USA.
Email: genglert@smu.edu
European Journal of Political Theory
2021, Vol. 20(3) 587–592
!The Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/14748851211002016
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