The Politics of Sour Grapes

Sartre, Elster, and Tocqueville on Frustration, Failure, and Self-Deception

Bibliographic Data

ID6398223
AuthorsMichael Locke Mclendon (corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume75
Issue2
Pages247-270
Publication date2013-01-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Review of Politics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0034-6705 • E-ISSN: 1748-6858
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0034670513000053
OpenAlexW2120746489
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited19

Jean-Paul Sartre and Jon Elster have taken great interest in the famous “children's” fable, “The Fox and the Grapes.” Elster believes the fable pinpoints problems in utilitarian doctrine while Sartre contends it demonstrates how consciousness copes with frustrated desire. As impressive as these insights are, neither philosopher can fully explain the cognitive and cultural processes involved in sour grapes. To improve upon their theories, I will argue thatamour-propreis an important psychological motive inspiring sour grapes as well as show that sour grapes is built into the value commitments and institutional structures of democratic life through Tocqueville's analysis of American democracy

Art · Consciousness · Deception · Democracy · Doctrine · Epistemology · Fable · Frustration · Literature · Political science · Politics · Psychoanalysis · Theology · Value (mathematics · Law · Philosophy · Political Theory and Influence · Psychology · Rousseau and Enlightenment Thought · Seventeenth-Century Political and Philosophical Thought · Social Psychology