Abstract
The present essay aims to shed light on the relationship between disgust and morality by investigating the notion of miasma in Ancient Greece. Miasma mostly refers to pollution in both a moral and a religious sense: it is generated by impious thoughts and immoral acts and, if not contained, can spread like a disease, thus contaminating the whole community. In my analysis, I aim to propose a new understanding of this concept by analysing its structural relationship to a negative emotion: disgust. In fact, the latest neuroscientific and psychological findings point to a substantial relationship between disgust and morality. However, this interconnection is fraught with ambivalence. Disgust is typically considered to be a negative moral and social emotion due to its dehumanizing tendencies and its impenetrability to mitigating factors. Nevertheless, this aversive emotion seems to play a positive role in the non-violent condemnation of antisocial behaviour through the stigmatization of wrongdoers. In light of this research, I argue that miasma is a manifestation of the subtle interplay between disgust and morality.
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Notes
- 1.
Another related concept is agos. However, agos has a narrower meaning as it indicates a violation of a divine authority or ritual (Parker 1983, 5–11, 191–200).
- 2.
The depiction of the Erinyes in Aeschylus’ tragedies was so horrific that dismayed women were said to have miscarried in front of the stage (Page’s OCT of Aeschylus, 332.10–23, 1972). On the relation between the emotions portrayed on stage and those felt by the audience cf. Beltrametti, this volume. On the paradoxical allure of tragedy cf. Mazzocut-Mis, this volume.
- 3.
For a detailed overview cf. Petrovic and Petrovic (2016, 16–25).
- 4.
For an analysis of shame in Ancient Greece cf. De Luise, this volume.
- 5.
As a relatively recent trend, the main tenets of embodied cognition have yet to be systematized. Thus, different theses are upheld by various authors. I will endorse only the so-called conceptual thesis, namely, that an agent’s understanding is structurally dependent on the nature and function of its body (Shapiro 2011, 4). For a review of the main claims held by embodied cognitivists and their relative independence cf. Wilson (2002).
- 6.
Here, I highlight the similarities between these two forms of practice. For a thorough discussion on the differences between the religious and the medical system cf. Holmes (2010).
- 7.
Akatharsia and related words are the most common ways to refer to the presence of miasma (Parker 1983, 12).
- 8.
The linguistic overlapping emerges in several tragedies (Mitchell-Boyask 2008, 46).
- 9.
Ancient Greek does not have a specific word to define disgust. Different words – such as aedia, bdeluria or dyschereia – are used but none of them can be considered an exact equivalent of the modern label disgust. For a detailed analysis of the role of disgust in Ancient Greece cf. Lateiner and Spatharas (2017).
- 10.
- 11.
I will not mention studies that investigate the influence of indirect physical disgusting stimuli on moral evaluations (e.g. Schnall et al. 2008) as a recent meta-analysis cast doubts on this kind of evidence (Landy and Goodwin 2015a; for a reply, see Schnall et al. 2015; and a rebuttal, see Landy and Goodwin 2015b).
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Valentini, N. (2021). The Subtle Interplay Between Disgust and Morality: Miasma as a Case Study. In: Giacomoni, P., Valentini, N., Dellantonio, S. (eds) The Dark Side: Philosophical Reflections on the “Negative Emotions”. Studies in the History of Philosophy of Mind, vol 25. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55123-0_2
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