In this chapter, Ahmed begins with the relationship between happiness and object. He points out that we make judgements of things as good or bad things based on how we are affected by them. As a result, happiness is intentional because it is about the object that we believe will make us feel good. Do you find this similar to Solomon’s cognitivism? Or would you say happiness is more like a mood that doesn’t have intentionality? Then, Ahmed says happiness becomes conditional because we believe we can only achieve happiness only if we have that object. Have you ever had the belief that you wanted something so much because you thought it would bring you “happiness” or other emotions you wished? And what’s the result?
When we have a belief that something will bring happiness to us, we start to imagine and anticipate the happiness we will acquire from having the object, and this is called “anticipatory causality” (28). Ahmed further points out that there is an uneasiness/anxiety in our anticipation of happiness. It’s derived from the sense of lacking something that we desire so much. So do you feel anxiety is the necessary result of anticipatory happiness? Is there a happiness that doesn’t come with anxiety/uneasiness? Do you think if it is different from chasing your dreams or making your dreams come true?
Ahmed argues that good habits are the foundation of happiness. By forming habits, we are able to regulate our desires and emotions towards the “right direction,” which is where we have an autonomy of our actions. Ahmed stated that, “The good life is the life lived in the right way, by doing the right things, over and over again.”(Ahmed, 36). How do you know if you are doing the right things? How does emotional constructivism play a role in our understanding of what is “right”? Later, Ahmed argues in her model of habituation that feelings have a crucial role in our happiness. In order to be good or virtuous, the agent must “also experience the right amount of such feelings.” How can we train our minds and feelings to feel appropriately? Is it possible to have a complete autonomy of our emotions or do we only master hiding our emotions from an ethical perspective?
Ahmed’s concept of affective contagion argues that emotional affects are “sustained in being passed around: shame creates shame in others, and happiness creates happiness in others, and so on.” (Ahmed, 39). This is more prevalent in crowd settings, where an agent is affected by something that is within their proximity. Often times, a crowd might have a certain “atmosphere” as a collective that might alienate an agent that may experience a gap between the agent’s feelings and the feelings expected of them as a part of the crowd. Sometimes, an agent corrects their feelings by forcing themselves by reconstructing how they feel. This may lead to feelings of uneasiness, discomfort, or anxiety. What does this model of affective contagion say about Kate Manne’s concept of himpathy? How can we begin to change a group’s affect to change a culture? Is it possible to reconstruct a normative societal affect without destroying a culture?
Shared by: Uma and Steven