Early-modern statecraft aimed to master affect, not oppose it.

Evidence

In the colonies, Weber’s reasoned state, staffed by “cultivated men,” complemented Durkheim’s moralizing one. Colonial states were in the business of “engineering morality,” both among their agents and those ruled. As such, both Weber and Durkheim attended to a register of governance neither explicitly named: the harnessing of affect in the state’s shaping of what constituted morality and who had the right to assess it. — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 426 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Observers repeatedly stressed the precision, the orderliness, the grace of mechanisms like this one, which embodied the ideal of the early modern European state as it ought to have been and rarely was, with everything working together harmoniously under the control of one guiding idea and one beneficent sovereign. … Its appeal went far beyond Europe: automata like our galleon were presented as gifts to the emperor of China and the Ottoman sultan and were greatly prized. — Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects, 1180 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Automata reflect the ideal of a harmonious early modern state. — Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects, 1180; States were once expected to produce passions, not merely check them; Colonial states engineered morality by harnessing affect in their agents. — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 426

Related

• States were once expected to produce passions, not merely check them (similarity 0.86)
• Automata reflect the ideal of a harmonious early modern state. (similarity 0.85)
• Colonial states engineered morality by harnessing affect in their agents. (similarity 0.81)
• Philosophical debates about reason versus passion shaped colonial political decisions. (similarity 0.81)
• Colonial states combined Weberian rational and Durkheimian moral governance. (similarity 0.80)
• The rational state producing affect was once not seen as contradictory. (similarity 0.79)
• Civilizing policies normalized the presence of subjects in a nation of citizens (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• States were once expected to produce passions, not merely check them #corroborates (0.85)
• Colonial states engineered morality by harnessing affect in their agents. #exemplifies (0.70) — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 426
• Automata reflect the ideal of a harmonious early modern state. #corroborates (0.55) — Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects, 1180