Emotional Life: Phenomenology, Education and Care (Phänomenologische Erziehungswissenschaft, 14)

The human heart is, in many ways, an indecipherable enigma. The opposition of reason and passion has long prevented us from recognizing emotions and feelings as legitimate sources of knowledge. This book takes a deep dive into the rich phenomenology of affect, with a view to uncovering its essence and variety of forms: the experience of being “invaded” by an emotion is different to that of being “immersed” in a mood, just as being “guided” by a feeling does not mean being “swept away” by a passionate impulse. Hence the need for a systematic phenomenology of emotionality that can help us to appreciate such distinctions. The philosophical and pedagogical trajectory outlined in these pages provides education and healthcare practitioners – and indeed all those willing to improve their self-knowledge – with the key to a deeper understanding of the emotional life and its meaning for our existence. Foreword 6 Preface by the Editor 10 Contents 12 1 The Emotional Life as a Pedagogical Concern 14 1.1 Paradoxes of Our Time 15 1.2 Eros No Longer Goes to School 19 1.3 At the Heart of Care 23 1.4 The Democracy of Passions 25 2 The Reasons for Feelings: Overcoming Dichotomous Thinking 28 2.1 The Antinomy Between Thinking and Feeling 29 2.2 Unaffective Dystopias 31 2.3 There’s a Logic in the Heart 33 2.4 An Unspecified Place Between Mind and Body 35 3 The Eyes of the Heart and the Appearance of the World 40 3.1 Native Feeling and Degrees of Involvement 41 3.2 Intentionality and Motivation 43 3.3 The Feeling of Value 46 3.4 Ordo Amoris 48 3.5 Monads Have Windows Too 49 4 We Are Ever “Inside” Our Emotions 55 4.1 Emotions Transform Reality 57 4.2 Life is Emotionally Tuned 60 4.3 The Atmosphere Enveloping Us 64 5 Caring for Our Emotional Lives 70 5.1 Resentment, or Emotional Intoxication 72 5.2 Superficiality, or the Inauthentic Life 74 5.3 A Four-Step Method 76 5.4 With the Patience of a Gardener 79 Afterword 83 References 85