ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a consideration of the affective dimensions of Mills' argument in The Sociological Imagination. It draws attention to the capacities of emotional and conceptual awareness. The chapter argues that these two dimensions of 'awareness', along with what Mills terms a 'moral sensibility', are constitutive of the sociological imagination. It claims that together they make up the quality of mind that can translate the 'present as history' for the individual and the 'future of responsibility' for society. The chapter considers the argument presented by the French sociologist and criminologist Gabriel Tarde in his masterpiece Penal Philosophy. It demonstrates that Tarde's conception of 'moral responsibility' exhibits the kind of sympathetic orientation that, according to Mills, is necessary to translate personal troubles into public issues. The chapter considers the prospects of this 'sympathetic' quality of mind for the criminological imagination.
