Why Are We Restless?

Part 9 - Tocqueville on the lack of Sustained Thought and Steady Contemplation

In Democracy in America’s second volume, Tocqueville examines the inner life of the democratic soul from the top down, beginning with the intellect. In doing so, he shows how the desire for immanent contentment shapes the way we think. We are attracted by the satisfactions of immanence in part because we are unnerved by the claims about the transcendent…