The Epistemic Value of Affective Disruptability

Topoi 41 (5):859-869 (2021)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

In order to explore how emotions contribute positively or negatively to understanding the meaning of complex socio-culturally specific phenomena, I argue that we must take into account the habitual dimension of emotions – i.e., the emotion repertoire that a feeling person acquires in the course of their affective biography. This brings to light a certain form of alignment in relation to affective intentionality that is key to comprehending why humans understand situations in the way they do and why it so often is especially hard to understand things _differently_. A crucial epistemic problem is that subjects often do not even enter a process of understanding, i.e., they do not even start to consider a specific object, theory, circumstance, other being, etc. in different ways than the familiar one. The epistemic problem at issue thus lies in an unquestioned faith in things being right the way they are taken to be. By acknowledging the habitual dimension of affective intentionality, I analyze reasons for this inability and suggest that being affectively disruptable and cultivating a pluralistic emotion repertoire are crucial abilities to overcome this epistemic problem.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 103,388

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

How Emotions do not Provide Reasons to Act.Mary Carman - 2018 - Philosophia 46 (3):555-574.
The intentionality of emotions and the possibility of unconscious emotions.Stéphane Lemaire - 2022 - J. Deonna, C. Tappolet and F. Teroni (Eds.), A Tribute to Ronald de Sousa. URL Https://Www.Unige.Ch/Cisa/Related-Sites/Ronald-de-Sousa/.
Epistemic Emotions: a Natural Kind?Anne Meylan - 2014 - Philosophical Inquiries 2 (1):173-190.
Concurring Emotions, Affective Empathy, and Phenomenal Understanding.Christiana Werner - 2023 - Passion: Journal of the European Philosophical Society for the Study of Emotion 1 (2):103-107.
Appreciation as an Epistemic Emotion.Dong An - 2022 - Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 25 (2):249-264.

Analytics

Added to PP
2021-12-14

Downloads
43 (#543,787)

6 months
8 (#390,329)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Imke von Maur
Universität Osnabrück

Citations of this work

Affective scaffolding in addiction.Zoey Lavallee - 2023 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy.
Scripts and Social Cognition.Gen Eickers - 2024 - Ergo: An Open Access Journal of Philosophy 10 (54):1565-1587.
Scripts and Social Cognition.Gen Eickers - 2024 - Ergo 10 (54):1565-1587.

View all 9 citations / Add more citations