In Martha Craven Nussbaum’s article “Aristotle on Emotions and Rational Persuasion”, I like how she explains the connection between beliefs and emotions. I think a good example she used to illustrate this was “The loud noise strikes the brave man as something terrible, but being a brave man, he doesn’t accept that it is in fact terrible; he judges that is it not so terrible. So he stands his ground (pg.307).” Most would assume that the noise would cause the man to be fearful, but his belief that the situation is not so terrible inhibits this emotion. The example shows that emotions are based on more than feelings. I agree when Nussbaum explains that beliefs are constituent parts of the emotions itself (pg.309). She says that we cannot describe emotions, such as pity or fear, without referring to what we are pitting or fearing. When I tried to define these feelings, I found it difficult to find words that didn’t relate to outside components, i.e what or who I am angry or fearful at. As rhetoricians, we should take note of this idea because if we want to persuade our audience to feel a certain way, we have to write in a way that will make them believe it.
Another section of this article that I found interesting was the discussion of love. Again Nussbaum states that belief is essential in instating this emotion. But this passage emphasizes the importance of the actual person feeling this emotion to believe it, “…since Aristotle informs us in detail that people who love one another do so on the basis of a certain conception or description of the object, and on the basis of their belief that the object has the feature or features in question…(pg. 311).” The quote reminds me of situations where a friend is dating someone who is completely wrong for them. While you see the flaws in their partner, your friend doesn’t see these qualities because he or she strongly believes in the positive aspects of the person. Believing in the positive qualities establishes and reinforces the love they think they have for their partner. No matter how many times you tell your friend to stop loving this person, it probably won’t change much because what matters is the belief he or she holds. But beliefs are not set in stone and they can change along with the emotion. If you friend starts to believe in the negative qualities of their partner his or her feelings would be different towards them. Nussbaum writes“…if any of these central beliefs turns out to be false, or become false, love will itself cease...(pg.311).”
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ReplyDelete"The example shows that emotions are based on more than feelings. I agree when Nussbaum explains that beliefs are constituent parts of the emotions itself (pg.309). She says that we cannot describe emotions, such as pity or fear, without referring to what we are pitting or fearing."
I agree that most emotions can not be described without respect to their object, but I do not think it is always so clear as it is in the case of pity and fear (that rhymes!). Take boredom, for example. It is hard to define the object of one's boredom. Similarly, many people experience states of generalized anxiety. Such individuals may be aware that the anxiety is future oriented, or regarding an uncomfortable past experience, but are unable to identify what exactly--if anything--is causing it.
Gratitude can also be rather vague. Last week, I was ecstatic and immensely grateful that it snowed... but to whom or what was a grateful? Not being a religious individual, I did not attribute the snow to a higher power. Nor did I believe the weather man conjured it up. It just... happened. And it was wonderful.
@ Donah - I like your example of a couple who's "bad" for each other. This not-uncommon occurrence in relationships (especially those of youths) is a great way to relate Nussbaum's ideas to college students' real lives. I have witnessed such relationships (and partaken, admittedly) and the issue is exactly what Nussbaum is talking about: you and your friend (and perhaps their parasitic lover) feel differently about the object: the relationship. They see it as having more merits than faults, while a less biased third party sees the opposites. I think the reason people are so inclined to delude themselves is that we have a need to retroactively justify the relationship, so that our efforts aren't deemed wasted. It's the same way with investment. People don't want to sell stocks when their value is falling, because we cling to the hope that we can eventually turn a profit, and thereby make our original decision to invest "correct".
ReplyDelete@Kim - You're totally right that Affects (bodily conditions) can come along without a coherent object to tie them to.I have mild generalized anxiety that tends to come in waves. When it strikes, I feel a considerable amount of tension and angst that I can't find a conscious reason for. But my mind is incessantly trying to find an object for that anxiety, something foreboding that I can attach to my affect so that it "makes sense". The results can be pretty hilarious, because, of course, what it gets psychologically attached to isn't what caused the affect. So, for example, I might decide that I'm nervous about how traffic might be on the way home, or about whether something I sad was taken the wrong way. Even if I'm taking a bike home, and all I said was "hi".
Your comments about love are great. It is so true how we often see things completely differently than our friends; especially in the case of a boyfriend or girlfriend not being right for them. I've heard so many friends say things like: "You don't see him the same way I do," or, "When we're alone, he's totally different." What usually happens, is that they end up breaking up and that friend says: "You were so right-- how could I have been so blind?" I think that's why a lot of guys and girls have "issues" with their partner's friends. The friends may represent a side of the person that the boy/girlfriend doesn't see.
ReplyDeleteAristotle does say that love is not really an emotion, but a relationship with emotional components. That is probably why things can get so nasty when things go south in a relationship.
Expanding on the relationship example (and perhaps moving off topic a bit), the fact that one's emotional attachment to an object or person is dictated by the amount of value they assign to that person is why I personally believe that one cannot just "stay friends" after one or both parties have been in love with the other. When people break up and just stay "friends," there is still a level of value attached to the other person, regardless of how much one may deny it. The only way to go on with life is to be angered by or begin to hate that person, and thus lower the value one assigns to them in their eyes.
ReplyDeleteIt's something of a cruel idea, but I cannot think of any circumstances where there was an alternative way of thinking about it that doesn't involved repressed feelings on the part of one party or the other.
I’m so glad you wrote about the link between belief and emotion. I agree with you that the way we experience emotions are in part determined by our beliefs. Hence emotion is fundamentally related to the objects. Take fear, for instance. If I hear a strange knocking on my door in the middle of the night, I may experience fear. I feel fear because I believe it may be a thief trying to break into my house. But if my belief changes (I now believe that my friend is just bored and is knocking because he wants to hang out), my emotion changes too (I now may feel joy or excitement). Change the belief once again (the wind is rattling the door), and the emotion may change (I’m now irritated). Notice that I’m not feeling fear, joy, or irritation at the sound of the knock, but at the thief, friend, and wind causing the knock. Emotions must have an object.
ReplyDeleteI think your examples of boredom/anxiety/gratitude are interesting points, Elphie, and I’m not sure how to respond to them. Could they be more feelings than emotions, since they have no object? Like “I’m feeling cold.” Even though there is a reason I feel cold (the snow), my feeling cold has no object (I’m not cold toward/at something in a physical sense); so I probably wouldn’t consider cold an emotion.