Philosophers don't often write about the heart. At least, analytical
philosophers don't. Why is this? Philosophers are said to live life
“in their heads” rather than “from their hearts.” But even if
that is so, why don't they think and write about the heart? Moreover,
it can hardly have escaped philosophers' attention that matters of the
heart are central to what we human beings value most about our lives,
including our lives with animals. Philosophers write a lot about
friendship and love, but they tend to do so in terms that leave out
heartfelt connection. They speak rather of commitment to one another
and each other's well-being, or taking each other as ends, or sharing
deliberative standpoints or living life together, or a whole host of
other topics, and much less about mutual emotional vulnerability and
sharing and being in one another's hearts. Surely one explanation of
philosophers' reticence is that talk of “the heart” seems
unavoidably metaphorical. It turns out to be easy enough, however, to
cash the metaphor in if we simply take “heart” refers to a cluster
of emotional susceptibilities that have an essentially reciprocating
structure. The heart aims at heartfelt connection-at shared experience
of joys and sorrows, hopes and fears, and other personal emotions. We
seek naturally to share these feelings with others and must suppress
our natural tendencies if we wish to avoid doing so. Our heart's wish
is to be open to other hearts in the hope that they will be open to
ours, and thereby us, in return. This book is a systematic
treatment-perhaps the first-of “attitudes of the heart”-remorse
(versus guilt), love, trust, gratitude, personal anger (versus
righteous anger), jealousy, and others-and their role in mediating
personal relationship, attachment, and connection. This is obviously
interesting in its own right, but it also shows how heartfelt
attitudes mirror more extensively studied “reactive attitudes” of
guilt, resentment, and blame (“attitudes of the will”). Whereas
the latter mediate moral relations of mutual respect and
accountability, attitudes of the heart are the currency of heartfelt
connection and personal relationship.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780198879589
Publisert
2024
Utgave
1. utgave
Utgiver
Oxford University Press Academic UK
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter