Sickness and Remedy for the Modern Soul

Abstract On Aaron Herold’s interpretation, Tocqueville understands that human beings long for a type of transcendence that cannot be satisfied merely by the earthly goods that liberalism promises. Herold finds Tocqueville writing artfully to attempt to return human beings to a deeper understanding of themselves, and in so doing, exercising a type of statesmanship in his writing. This review raises three questions regarding Herold’s presentation of Tocqueville: first, the degree to which noble self-sacrifice is embedded in the American tradition; second, the ultimate status of religious toleration as a moral good in Tocqueville’s thought; and third, Tocqueville’s view of the relation of religion and philosophy.