Love and knowledge: Emotion in feminist epistemology

Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 32 (2):151 – 176 (1989)
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Abstract

This paper argues that, by construing emotion as epistemologically subversive, the Western tradition has tended to obscure the vital role of emotion in the construction of knowledge. The paper begins with an account of emotion that stresses its active, voluntary, and socially constructed aspects, and indicates how emotion is involved in evaluation and observation. It then moves on to show how the myth of dispassionate investigation has functioned historically to undermine the epistemic authority of women as well as other social groups associated culturally with emotion. Finally, the paper sketches some ways in which the emotions of underclass groups, especially women, may contribute to the development of a critical social theory.

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Alison Jaggar
University of Colorado, Boulder

Citations of this work

The Aptness of Anger.Amia Srinivasan - 2018 - Journal of Political Philosophy 26 (2):123-144.
Emotional Imperialism.Alfred Archer & Benjamin Matheson - forthcoming - Philosophical Topics.
Outrage and the Bounds of Empathy.Sukaina Hirji - 2022 - Philosophers' Imprint 22 (16).
Affective injustice and fundamental affective goods.Francisco Gallegos - 2021 - Journal of Social Philosophy 53 (2):185-201.

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References found in this work

Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature.Richard Rorty - 1979 - Princeton University Press.
The death of nature.Carolyn Merchant - forthcoming - Environmental Philosophy: From Animal Rights to Radical Ecology.
The man of reason: "male" and "female" in Western philosophy.Genevieve Lloyd - 1993 - Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

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