Circumscribing the space for disruptive emotions within an African communitarian framework

Bibliographic Data

ID12893202
AuthorsMary Carman (0000-0002-8163-2100, University of the Witwatersrand, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume18
Issue3
Pages386-402
Publication date2022-01-17
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Global Ethics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1744-9626 • E-ISSN: 1744-9634
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17449626.2021.2021274
OpenAlexW4206637943
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited19

Bernard Matolino has recently argued that African communitarianism is an ethics grounded in emotion aligned with reason. If he is correct, questions arise about what emotions have value within African communitarianism, especially as emotions like anger or resentment could stand in tension with important communitarian values, such as social harmony. While little critical attention has so far been paid to such emotions within an African communitarian framework, a wider philosophical literature examining the moral value of disruptive emotions could be drawn on to develop analyses of emotion within African communitarianism. In this paper, I explore how such an analysis could proceed. I argue that drawing on the wider emotion literature, and especially the concept of reactive attitudes introduced by P. F. Strawson, provides an initial case for even disruptive emotions to have value. Even so, we must question whether an analysis of emotion plausibly based on individualistic commitments is compatible with relational communitarian commitments. I nevertheless defend the compatibility and argue that, not only can disruptive emotions have instrumental value through their epistemic and motivational roles in the promotion of community but, importantly, they are partially constitutive of the interpersonal relationships within which we are embedded and that form community

Communitarianism · Epistemology · Harmony (color · Political science · Resentment · Sociology · Value (mathematics · African cultural and philosophical studies · Emotions and Moral Behavior · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment · Social Psychology

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