Platonic Thumos and Rousseauan Amour-propre (Mark Shiffman)

About this episode

Professor Mark Shiffman discusses the concepts of thumos and amour-propre in relation to political psychology.

Recording of a lecture delivered on October 24, 2025, by Professor Mark Shiffman, as part of the Formal Lecture Series.Mark Shiffman (A89) is Professor and Department Chair of Philosophy at Saint Patrick’s Seminary in California and Director of the Institute for Philosophy, Technology, and Politics. He is the author of What is Ideology, with scholarly work spanning the fields of ancient philosophy, political theory, and the Catholic tradition. Professor Shiffman offers the following introduction to his lecture: "Ambition, competition, dignity, and pride are phenomena central to an adequate political psychology. Plato calls the root source of these passions thumos and Rousseau calls it amour-propre . Can both the commonalities and the differences between what the two authors mean by these words help illuminate the political developments of our time?"

People in this episode

Guest: Mark Shiffman

Topics covered

• political psychology
• thumos
• amour-propre
• Plato
• Rousseau
• philosophy
• political theory

Keywords

• thumos
• amour-propre
• political psychology
• Plato
• Rousseau
• philosophy
• political theory

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Saint Patrick’s Seminary

Books & works: What is Ideology, Platonic Thumos and Rousseauan Amour-propre

Places: California

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