Abstract
Traditional forms of knowledge in human sciences are primarily understood and pursued in terms of “cognitive” realm by divesting the emotional aspects of realities that human sciences are concerned with. Such orientation can be linked to the ideational shifts brought about by enlightenment project of “western modernity.” However, a meaningful, and transformative, aspect of knowledge can come only when we position emotion as a central concern of human scientific enquiries.
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Notes
- 1.
It is a key concept in psychology, especially in clinical and counseling psychology and Weberian sociology.
- 2.
Inspired by the spectacular achievement of physical and biological sciences, the dominant position of these human sciences is to capture the regularities of the phenomena under investigation, which are to be explained in terms of mechanistic causal explanations. This has been the traditional orientation of positivist or scientific psychology or Durkheimian sociology.
- 3.
For cogito as a foundation of knowledge, something that can be traced back to Rene Descartes (see Curley, 2006).
- 4.
“Enlightenment is man’s release from his self-incurred tutelage,” and this release is the crucial marker of what constitutes enlightenment (Kant, 1784/2001).
- 5.
Curley (2006).
- 6.
Durkheim (1895/2014).
- 7.
- 8.
- 9.
- 10.
For a review of this turn (see Greco & Stenner, 2008).
- 11.
This return of emotion in human sciences is felt beyond psychology and sociology. One domain in which this return has made its presence felt is political science (e.g., see Bhargava, 2000). This is not surprising for, “[t]he language of politics, descriptive as well as normative, accommodates the vocabulary and syntax of the passions” (Sissa, 2009/2012, p. 283).
- 12.
“Genealogically speaking, the textual turn may be described as one of the conditions of possibility for the recent affective turn” (Greco & Stenner, 2008, p. 9).
- 13.
Nandy (1983).
- 14.
- 15.
- 16.
- 17.
Although culture has been understood in different ways, the sense in which it is used here is informed by Geertz (1973) who defines culture as “a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life” (p. 89).
- 18.
Similar concerns can also be seen in humanistic orientation of Carl Rogers in education (Rogers, 1967).
- 19.
Aspects of the alienating spectrum of education that Paulo Freire (1970) talks about are evocatively communicated in popular culture by a well-known song Another Brick in the Wall (1979) by the rock band, Pink Floyd.
- 20.
The expression “need not have been” points to the presence of the practitioner of human sciences as the observer/knower, and his critical agency in the production of knowledge.
- 21.
Weber is known as a founder of this orientation in sociology (Bruun & Whimster, 2012).
- 22.
Here, we might as well note that it is generally accepted amongst the psychologists and other mental health professionals that for transformative experience to happen, emotional insight (i.e., awareness of one’s own emotional reactions or those of others) is more important than intellectual insight (i.e., rational awareness of experiences or relationships).
- 23.
Sissa (2009).
- 24.
Language is cultural in the sense that it “is a culturally transmitted system” that we acquire as members of society (Smith, 2006). This is not to deny that there has been debate on the nature of language per se as to whether it is a sociocultural artifact or something innate (e.g., biologically endowed).
- 25.
This is not surprising as human sexuality is linked to the “disciplinary regimes” as Foucault (1976) observes that “body” and “regulation of population” are the two sites of “bio-power.”
- 26.
In course of my ongoing work on human intimacy and sexuality, this aspect has also been observed alluding to the nature embodiment of the self in a matrix of language, culture, emotion, and body. Some respondents, not necessarily belonging to Hindu communities, do not remember the words for genitals, especially in their mother tongue. Correspondingly, when asked to utter or recollect (either verbally or in their mind), the words for genitals or sexual intercourse in their mother tongues, many have reported experiencing emotions (particularly discomfort often in terms of guilt and/or shame, something that they could sense along with accompanying bodily sensation/responses). Alluding to the role of culture and language, even different clothing (traditional and western attires) as an extension of skin (body) seems to elicit different sense of self and emotions. This embodiment of the self is a crucial indicator of the disciplinary regimes that work through human sexuality to constitute self, social relation, and social order.
- 27.
- 28.
As Bericat puts it, “I feel, therefore I am” (2015, p. 491).
- 29.
Atleast characterized by “organismic sensing” of the situation under investigation. Incidentally, Bhagavad Gita alluded to this nature of emotional insight. Amongst the three paths to truth (namely Karma Yoga, the path of selfless action; Jnana Yoga, the path of knowledge; Bhakti Yoga, the path of devotion which can be roughly taken as similar to behavioural, cognitive, and affective) that Lord Kirshna teaches Arjuna, what ultimately works turns out to be the Bhakti Yoga. Arjuna ultimately recovers from his dysfunctional state (that he could not perform his duty as a soldier in the battle field) after he emotionally experiences the truth that Lord Krishna reveals to him. Chapter 11 of the text describes Arjuna’s response in terms of “emotional state” involving bodily responses such as “trembling,” “heart beat,” “hair standing up,” etc. That this text could be seen as a therapeutic approach was something that I have heard for the first time during my student days at Delhi University in a talk delivered decades ago by (Late) Prof. J. S. Neki of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi.
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Akoijam, A.B. (2024). Emotion and Human Sciences: On the Forms of Knowing. In: Misra, G., Misra, I. (eds) Emotions in Cultural Context. International and Cultural Psychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-46349-5_30
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