You're listening to the Stoic Philosophy Podcast - practical wisdom for everyday life.

I'm Justin Vacula and this is episode 24 titled 'Is emotion knowledge?'

[music]

Visit my website at justinvacula.com where you can connect with me on social media and see past
content on Soundcloud, YouTube, iTunes, or Stitcher. Support my work by becoming a donor through
Patreon or Paypal. Share, comment, like, subscribe, and leave a review to help support my efforts and
keep this project going.

What is knowledge? How are we to form accurate beliefs about the world? What role might feelings
have in producing justified true beliefs? Are we justified in believing something because we feel
passion, because we feel so strongly about a certain proposition? Questions like these are recurring
philosophical questions in both ancient and modern times.

I recently discovered an article on CampusReform.org which describes an assistant professor at the

University of New Mexico who argues that valuing emotion as knowledge is a way to desconstruct
hegemonic white identity in the classroom.

I won't focus on responding to this paper here, particularly the talk about hegemony or white identity,
but instead will focus on the topic of emotions and knowledge which Stoic Philosophers have a great
deal to say about.

Stoic Philosophers encourage us to be mindful of our emotions rather than supressing or discounting
them, to question our passions, especially negative emotions as I have discussed in a previous episode
titled 'Coping with negative emotions.' If we can moderate how we feel, not falling into a self-
destructive state, especially when embolded by anger and when we can hurt others, make impulsive
descisions we may later regret and otherwise would not make with a sounder mind, we can live a more
content life, be more in control of ourselves with far fewer negative happenings in our life.

It's in our power to reform our lives, to change our impressions, the way we view the world, Stoics will
say – maybe a difficult journey although possible even if with small steps and progress – undoing, shall
we say, unproductive, destructive modes of thinking, habits, and ways we respond to the world.

We can say that emotions give us knowledge about ourselves, our subjective states, how we are feeling,
what we are thinking. What we may be feeling, though, how we may respond to certain events in the
world, especially chance happenings, things outside of our control, is really important for Stoic writers
– how should we respond? Shall we be angry, set the world on fire, be overly cynical, harm others,
harm ourselves and feel justified in doing so just because we feel a certain way? What if we happen to
be mistaken about our interpretatations and/or there can be better ways to cope with inevitable suffering
in life?

I've heard, especially on social media, people talking about their anger using phrases like 'being
justified in anger,' 'don't invalidate my anger,' 'I have a right to feel a certain way,' and this often comes
with what seems to be a blank check people write for themselves to commit any and all acts including,
as we have seen in modern times, property destruction, violence against others, personal attacks –
surely not the behavior these people would like to see directed at them, but in casting others as villians,
running wild with their emotions, they enter into a dangerous state rather than stepping back and
questioning their perceptions, finding more constructive ways to respond to problems. They create a
barrier, as it seems, to be immune from criticism and write off all who criticize, shutting down
discussion, not dealing with arguments, not considering different perspectives and being stuck in an
unproductive mode of rage.

Indeed, we may feel angry about what we consider injustice and we may be right, that certain people
have been treated unfairly – we look at corruption in politics, for instance, which leads to suffering, a
flawed criminal justice system, parents who abuse their children, needless exploitation and suffering
animals face – there's lots in the world we can be angry about, but is this the most helpful tool we want
to bring to the forefront? Because we feel a certain way, well, is this enough to constitute knowledge?
What facts, what arguments, what evidence might support a position we hold? What are the best
arguments against the position? What alternate explations might account for a certain phenomenon?
Can we say something more than, 'it feels right to me?'

Casting emotion as knowledge, at least just considering emotion, leads to unescapable problems, to
contradictions. A simple example here: perhaps you strongly feel that a neighbor is intentionally trying
to make your life miserable while someone else strongly feels that she has no malicious intent. How do
we determine who is right? Surely, both people can't be right. We'll need more than emotion here to
settle the issue.

The expression 'perception is reality' seems common in today's age, a phrase I don't particularly like
because meaning needs to be unpacked and this seems to lead to confusion. What do we mean by
reality here? A person can strongly believe something is true, people will say, 'it is real for them,' for
instance, but this doesn't mean a belief constitutes an objective reality, this is merely talk about
subjective perception – they strongly believe they are right, but could be mistaken perhaps employing
faulty reasoning in arriving at their conclusion. Let us be humble in admitting we could possibly be
wrong about what we think is true, perhaps especially when we feel strongly, that strong emotion may
lead us astray. Surely we can consider what others believe and not glibly write them off, let's hear what
they have to say and try to obtain more insight although let's pick our battles, especially in what can be
seemingly endless internet discussions. Let's use time well as the Stoics urge!

In my role as a mental health counselor in training, working with students in a professional capicity, I'll
for instance, when encountering someone who is having a difficult time and try to get the story,
understand why they are feeling what they are feeling and have a discussion about it, display empathy,
talk about the issue, offer support and encouragement, think about solutions to the problem, identify
flawed cognitions if they are present, find what the person values, try to make meaning of the
experience, I can take many approaches depending on the student and the situation.

Let's look to writings from Stoic Philosopher Seneca for more thoughts on this matter of emotions
constituting knowledge.

In his letter titled, 'On Festivals and Fasting,' Seneca talks about the dangers of anger, how our rational
faculty, our thoughts, can be compromised amidst passion, how we should seek to avoid excessive
emotion which can harm us and others. We should especially be skeptical of conclusions we reach,
what we are thinking, if we happen to be angry. He writes, “But indeed, this emotion blazes out against
all sorts of persons; it springs from love as much as from hate, and shows itself not less in serious
matters than in jest and sport. And it makes no difference how important the provocation may be, but
into what kind of soul it penetrates. Similarly with fire; it does not matter how great is the flame, but
what it falls upon […] the outcome of a mightly anger is madness, and hence anger should be avoided,
not merely that we may escape excess, but that we may have a healthy mind.”

This having a healthy mind, being free of excess, yearing toward moderation, improving our mindset –
this are key elements of Stoic Philosophy – a mighty anger is something to be avoided, this emotion,
especially when of great intensity, interferes with a rational process of acquiring and evaluating
knowledge. We should not desire anger, avoid using phrases like, 'he made me angry,' and take more
ownership over our emotions and thoughts – not blaming others, but instead having more control over
our lives and better dealing with adversity. In the quest for knowledge, in improving ourselves, in
looking to lead a better life, anger is not the weapon we want to seek.

In his letter 'On Allegiance to Virtue,' Seneca talks about negative emotions, passions, compromising
wisdom and reason and threatening our contentment – we ought not be ruled by passions, by impulsive
decisions, but rather by a sound mind, guided by Philosophy, guided by wisdom. He writes, “Betake
yourself therefore to philosophy if you would be safe, untroubled, happy, in fine, if you wish to be –
and that is most important – free. There is no other way to attain this end. […] These passions, which
are heavy taskmasters, sometimes ruling by turns, and sometimes together, can be banished from you
by wisdom, which is the only real freedom. […] Proceed with steady step, and if you would have all
things under your control, put yourself under the control of reason, if reason becomes your ruler, you
will become ruler over many. You will learn from her what you should undertake, and how it should be
done. You will not blunder into things.”

Here, Seneca calls for a reasoned, deliberate, careful approach to life with self-reflection scorning that
which can lead us to make reckless decisions, lead us away from reason. For him, freedom is working
toward self-mastery, control in our lives, being without negative emotions which can compromise us.
Indeed, we may be afflicted with intense negative emotions, especially in moments like greiving, facing
injustice, maybe we can't be totally free, totally masters of ourselves, but we can work to improve our
condition, work toward being this Stoic sage, the master of self, to meet this Stoic ideal – and we'll be
much better for it. We can combine emotion and reason, have moderation to not totally discount
emotion, supress emotion, neglect how we are feeling, and let us also not think of emotion as all which
is needed for knowledge – to discount a rational approach, to be too self-confident in believing
something simply because we feel strongly, to lack humilty.

Thanks for listening and stay tuned for more content.

____

Visit my website at justinvacula.com where you can find links to my social media portals and see past
content on Soundcloud, YouTube, iTunes, or Stitcher. Support my work by becoming a donor through
Patreon or Paypal. Share, comment, like, subscribe, and leave a review to help support my efforts and
keep this project going.

Podcast music is brought to you by Phil Giordana's symphonic metal group Fairyland - the song titled
'Master of the Waves' is from their album 'Score to a New Beginning.' Find more information in the
show notes.