Aither is a double-blind peer review, Open Access online academic journal. It is indexed at ERIH+ and Scopus. It is published by the Faculty of Arts of the Palacký University in Olomouc in cooperation with the Philosophical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. It comes out twice a year. Every second issue is international and contains foreign-language articles (mainly in English, but also in German and French). The journal is registered under the number ISSN 1803-7860.

Aither 16/2016(International issue no. 4):4-31 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2016.007

Seeing Better? On Ethical Values and Emotions

Peter Mccormick
Institut international de philosophie

Many informed commonsense discussions about understanding better the still obscure connections between strong emotions and basic values end fruitlessly. Most reflective persons today simply give up on finding a unified account, and others just abandon such matters to the cognitive and computational neuroscientists. Failing philosophically, however, to investigate further the nature of such interconnections is all too often short-sighted.
Here I take up the particular case of interactions between two basic ethical values (human life and personal dignity) and two basic emotions (anger and sympathy). With the suggestiveness of a richly descriptive classical literary representation and some recent empirical work on vision, I try to correct a still widespread, and dangerous, misconception. That misconception is the insufficiently critical view that strong emotional states thoroughly obscure ethical valuations. We need to see better. In contrast, I try to suggest how proper intellectual intuitions of the contents of at least some basic ethical values may sometimes suggest the mutual implications of the evaluative, the cognitive, and the emotive, in both rational representations and emotional presentations.

Published: September 30, 2016  Show citation

ACS AIP APA ASA Harvard Chicago Chicago Notes IEEE ISO690 MLA NLM Turabian Vancouver
Mccormick, P. (2016). Seeing Better? On Ethical Values and Emotions. Aither, 8(16), 4-31. doi: 10.5507/aither.2016.007
Share...
Download citation
  • BibTeX (.bib)
  • Bookends (.ris)
  • EasyBib (.ris)
  • EndNote (.enw)
  • EndNote 8 (.xml)
  • ISI WoS (.isi)
  • Medlars (.medlars)
  • Mendeley (.ris)
  • MODS (.xml)
  • Papers (.ris)
  • RefWorks (.txt)
  • RefManager (.ris)
  • RIS (.ris)
  • MS Word (.xml)
  • Zotero (.ris)
    • Open full article

    References

    1. Anderson, M. J. (1997). The Fall of Troy in Early Greek Poetry and Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    2. Argyle, M. (2004). "Eye Contact". In: R. L. Gregory (ed.), The Oxford companion to the mind, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 326-327.
    3. Audi, R. (2011). "Intuitions, Intuitionism, and Moral Judgment". In: J. G. Hernandez ed.), The New Intuitionism, London: Continuum, pp. 171-198.
    4. Beard, M., Henderson, J. (2001). Classical Art: From Greece to Rome. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    5. Bespaloff, R. (2004). Cheminements et carrefours. 2nd ed. Paris: Vrin.
    6. Blackburn, S. (2005). The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    7. Boardman, J. (1974). Athenian Black Figure Vases: A Handbook. London: Thames and Hudson.
    8. Boardman, J. (1975). Athenian red figure vases, the archaic period: a handbook. London: Thames and Hudson.
    9. Boardman, J. (1993). The Oxford History of Classical Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    10. Brook, A., Raymont, P. (2014). "The Unity of Consciousness". In: E. N. Zalta (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. URL: http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2014/entries/consciousness-unity/.
    11. Bryce, T. (2010). "The Trojan War". In: E. H. Cline, (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean (ca. 300 0-1000 BC), Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 475-482. Go to original source...
    12. Cairns, D. L. (1993). Aidos: The Psychology and Ethics of Honour and Shame in Ancient Greek Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    13. Campbell, J., Cassam, Q. (2014). Berkeley's Puzzle: What Does Experience Teach Us? Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    14. Cavanagh, W. (2008). "Death and the Mycenaeans". In: C. W. Shelmerdine (ed.), The Cambridge companion to the Aegean Bronze Age, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 327-341. Go to original source...
    15. Chantraine, P. (1958). Grammaire homérique. Tome 1, Phonétique et morphologie. Paris: Klincksieck.
    16. Chantraine, P. (1963). Grammaire homérique. Tome II, Syntaxe. Paris: Klincksieck.
    17. Chantraine, P. (2013). Grammaire homérique (rev. ed. M. Casevitz). Paris: Klincksieck.
    18. Chantraine, P. (2015). Grammaire homérique. Tome II, Syntaxe (rev. ed. M. Casevitz). Paris: Klincksieck.
    19. Chrestov, L. (1943). De l'Iliad. New York: Brentano.
    20. Cline, E. H. (ed.) (2010). The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean (ca. 300 0-1000 BC). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    21. Cline, E. H. (2013). The Trojan War: a very short introduction. New York: Oxford University Press. Go to original source...
    22. Coleman, A. M. (2015). The Oxford Dictionary of Psychology. 4th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    23. Cossell, L. et al. (2015). "Functional Organization of Excitatory Synaptic Strength in Primary Visual Cortex". Nature 518, pp. 399-403. Go to original source...
    24. Crespo, M. (2012). El valorético de la afectividad: Estudios de éticafenomenologica. Santiago: Ediciones Universidad Catolica de Chile.
    25. Dehaene, S. (2014). Consciousness and the Brain. New York: Viking.
    26. De Jong, I. J. F. (2012). Homer: Iliad Book XXII. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    27. De Jong, I. J. F. (2014). Narratology and the Classics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Go to original source...
    28. Demos, K. et al. (2008). "Human Amygdala Sensitivity to the Pupil Size of Others". Cerebral Cortex 18, pp. 2729-2734. Go to original source...
    29. de Sousa, R. (2014). "Emotion". In: E. N. Zalta (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. URL: http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2014/entries/emotion/.
    30. Dunsmoor, J. E. et al. (2015). "Emotional Learning Selectively and Retroactively Strengthens Memories for Related Events". Nature 520, pp. 345-348. Go to original source...
    31. Eliot, T. S. (1975). Selected Prose (ed. F. Kermode). New York: Harcourt, pp. 59-67.
    32. Elzenberg, H. (1991). "Negative values". In: P. Geach (ed.), Logic and Ethics, Kluwer - Academic Publishers, pp. 21-31. Go to original source...
    33. Evelyn-White, H. G. (ed.) (1914). Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns and Homerica. London: Heinemann.
    34. Fagles, R. (1991). Homer: The Iliad. London: Penguin Books.
    35. Fagles, R. (1996). Homer: The Iliad. London: Penguin Books.
    36. Farron, S. (1978). "The Character of Hector in the Iliad ". Acta Classica 21, pp. 39-57.
    37. Findlay, J. (1968). Intentions and Values. London: Unwin/Routledge.
    38. Findlay, J. (1970). Axiological Ethics. London: Macmillan. Go to original source...
    39. Finkleberg, M. (ed.) (2011). The Homer Encyclopedia. 3 vols. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. Go to original source...
    40. France, C. (2014). Shameless: The Canine and the Feminine in Ancient Greece (trans. M. Fox). Berkeley: University of California Press. Go to original source...
    41. Frede, D. (1996). "The Philosophical Economy of Plato's Psychology". In: M. Frede, G. Striker (eds.), Rationality in Greek Thought, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 29-58.
    42. Frede, M., Striker, G. (eds.) (1996). Rationality in Greek Thought. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    43. Fowler, R. (ed.) (2004). The Cambridge Companion to Homer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Go to original source...
    44. Fullerton, M. D. (2000). Greek Art. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    45. Georganas, J. (2010). "Weapons and Warfare". In: E. H. Cline (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean (ca. 3000-1000 BC), Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    46. Gilchrist, I. D. (2004). "Eye Movements". In: R. L. Gregory (ed.), The Oxford companion to the mind, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 327-328.
    47. Goldie, P. (ed.) (2012). The Oxford Handbook in the Philosophy of Emotion. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    48. Grant, M. (ed.) (1986). Greece and Rome: The Birth of Western Civilization. London: Thames and Hudson.
    49. Graziosi, B. (ed.) (2010). Iliad: Book VI. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    50. Green, P. (2015). Homer: The Iliad. Berkeley: University of CaliforniaPress.
    51. Gregory, R. L. (1997). Eye and Brain: the psychology of seeing. 5th ed. Princeton: Prinecton Univeristy Press. Go to original source...
    52. Gregory, R. L. (ed.) (2004). The Oxford companion to the mind. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    53. Grice, P. (1983). Carus Lectures on Conception of Value (unpublished).
    54. Grice, P. (1991). The Conception of Value. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    55. Groh, J. M. (2014). Making Space: How the Brain Knows Where Things Are. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Go to original source...
    56. Hernandez, J. G. (ed.) (2011). The New Intuitionism. London: Continuum.
    57. Herodotus. (2013). The Histories (trans. T. Holland). London: Allen Lane.
    58. Hornblower et al. (eds.) (2012). The Oxford Classical Dictionary. 4th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Go to original source...
    59. Hubel, D. H. (1988). Eye, Brain, Vision. New York: Scientific American Library.
    60. Huemer, M. (2005). Ethical Intuitionism. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Go to original source...
    61. Jablonka, P. (2010). "Troy". In: E. H. Cline (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean (ca. 3000-1000 BC), Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 849-861. Go to original source...
    62. Jackson, F. (2009). [Visual] Perception: A Representative Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    63. Jones, P. et al. (2008). The World of Athens (revised by R. Osborne). 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    64. Kennedy, R. (2011). "Intuitionism and Perceptual Representation". In: J. G. Hernandez (ed.), The New Intuitionism, London: Continuum, pp. 69-83.
    65. Kensinger, E. A., Schachter, D. L. (2010). "Memory and Emotion". In: M. Lewis et al. (eds.), Handbook of Emotions, 3rd ed., New York: Guilford Press, pp. 601-617.
    66. Kirk, G. et al. (1985-1993). The Iliad: A Commentary. 6 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Go to original source...
    67. Knox, B. (1993). The Nortonbook of classical literature. New York: Norton.
    68. Knox, B. (1996). "Introduction". In: R. Fagles (trans.), Homer: The Iliad, London: Penguin Books, pp. 3-64.
    69. Lamarque, P. (2009). The Philosophy of Literature. Oxford: Blackwell.
    70. Latacz, J., Bierl, A. et al. (eds.) (2000). Homers Ilias: Gesamtkommentar. Berlin: W. de Gruyter.
    71. Ledoux, J. E., Phelps, E. A. (2010). "Emotional Networks in the Brain". In: M. Lewis et al. (eds.), Handbook of Emotions. 3rd ed., New York: Guilford Press, pp. 159-179.
    72. Lemerise, E. A., Dodge, K. A. (2010). "The Development of Anger and Hostile Interactions". In: M. Lewis et al. (eds.), Handbook of Emotions, 3rd ed, New York: Guilford Press, pp. 730-741.
    73. Lewis, M. et al. (eds.) (2010). Handbook of Emotions. 3rd ed. New York: Guilford Press.
    74. Li, N. et al. (2015). "A Motor Cortex Circuit for Motor Planning and Movement". Nature 519, pp. 51-56. Go to original source...
    75. Long, A. A. (2015). Greek Models of Mind and Self. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Go to original source...
    76. Louden, B. (1993). "Pivotal Counterfactuals in Homeric Epic". Classical Antiquity 12, pp. 181-198. Go to original source...
    77. Mack, M. et al. (eds.) (1987). The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. 5th Continental Edition. New York: Norton.
    78. Marendaz, C. (2009). Du regard à l'émotion: la vision, le cerveau, l'affectif. Paris: Le Pommier.
    79. Meinong, A. (1917). Überemotionale Präsentation. Wien: A. Hölder.
    80. Meinong, A. (1972). On Emotional Presentation (trans. M.-L. Schubert-Kalsi). Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
    81. Menand, L. (2012). "Dissociation of Sensibility". In: R. Greene et al. (eds.), The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, 4th ed., Princeton: Princeton University Press, p. 369.
    82. Morris, I., Powell, B. (eds.) (1997). A New Companion to Homer. Leiden: Brill. Go to original source...
    83. Morton, A. (2012). "Epistemic Emotions". In: P. Goldie (ed.), The Oxford Handbook in the Philosophy of Emotion, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 385-400.
    84. Mulligan, K. (2012). "Emotions and Values". In: P. Goldie (ed.), The Oxford Handbook in the Philosophy of Emotion, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 475-501.
    85. Murray, A. T. (1924-1925). Homer: The Iliad (rev. trans. by W. F. Wyatt, 1999). 2 vols. Cambridge, MA: Harvard HP.
    86. Namburi, P. et al. (2015). "A Circuit Mechanism for Differentiating Positive and Negative Associations". Nature 520, pp. 675-678. Go to original source...
    87. Orban, G. (2007). La vision, mission du cerveau: Les trois révolutions des neurosciences. Paris: Collège de France/Fayard.
    88. Orlandi, N. (2014). The Innocent Eye: Why Vision is Not a Cognitive Process. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Go to original source...
    89. Osborne, R. (2009). Greece in the Making 1200-479 BC. 2nd ed. London: Routledge. Go to original source...
    90. Panksepp, J. (2010). "How Does Neural Activity Generate Emotional Felings?". In: M. Lewis et al. (eds.), Handbook of Emotions. 3rd ed., New York: Guilford Press, pp. 42-67.
    91. Porebski, C. (1995). Polish Value Theory. Cracow: Jagiellonian University Press.
    92. Price, H., Blackburn, S. (2013). Expressivism, Pragmatism, and Representationalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Go to original source...
    93. Prinz, J. J. (2010). "The Moral Emotions". In: P. Goldie (ed.), The Oxford Handbook in the Philosophy of Emotion, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 519-538. Go to original source...
    94. Proudfoot, M., Lacey, A. R. (2010). The Routledge Dictionary of Philosophy. 4th ed. London: Routledge. Go to original source...
    95. Radice, B. (1973). Who's Who in the Ancient World: A Handbook of the Survivors of the Greek and Roman Classics, rev. ed. Middlesex: Penguin Books.
    96. Redfield, J. M. (1993). Nature and Culture in the Iliad. 2nd ed. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
    97. Robinson, J. (2005). Deeper Than Reason: Emotion in Literature, Music, and the Arts. Oxford: Clarendon. Go to original source...
    98. Rosenbluth, D., Allman, J. (2004). "Eye Position Signals in Active Visual Processing". In: R. L. Gregory (ed.), The Oxford companion to the mind, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 329-332.
    99. Rosenwein, B. (2006). Emotional Communities in the Early Middle Ages. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
    100. Schofield, L. (2007). The Mycenaeans. Malibu, CA: The J. Paul Getty Museum.
    101. Scholl, B., Price, N. J. (2015). "The Cortical Connection". Nature 518, pp. 306-307. Go to original source...
    102. Schroeder, M. (2012). "Value Theory". In: E. N. Zalta (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. URL:http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2012/entries/value-theory.
    103. Shelmerdine, C. W. (ed.) (2008). The Cambridge companion to the Aegean Bronze Age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Go to original source...
    104. Siegel, S. (2015). "The Contents of Perception". In: E. N. Zalta (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. URL: http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2015/entries/perception-contents/.
    105. Siewert, C. (2011). "Consciousness and Intentionality". In: E. N. Zalta (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. URL:http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2011/entries/consciousness-intentionality.
    106. Snell, B. et al. (eds.) (1955-2010). Lexikon des frühgrieschischen Epos. 25 vols. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
    107. Tackett, T. (2015). The Coming of the Terror in the French Revolution. Cambridge, MA: Belknap and Harvard University Press. Go to original source...
    108. Tatarkiewicz, W. (1975). "The Concept of Poetry" (trans. C. Kasparek). Dialectics and Humanism 2, pp. 13-24. Go to original source...
    109. Thucydides. (2009). The Peloponnesian War (trans. M. Hammon). London: Penguin. Go to original source...
    110. Tilliette, X. (1995). L'Intuition intellectuelle de Kant à Hegel. Paris: Vrin.
    111. Van Gulick, R. (2014). "Consciousness". In: E. N. Zalta (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. URL: http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2014/entries/consciousness/.
    112. Wachter, R. (2000). "Grammatik der homerischen Sprache". In: J. Latacz, A. Bierl, et al. (eds.), Homers Ilias: Gesamtkommentar, Berlin: W. de Gruyter, pp. 61-108. Go to original source...
    113. Wakker, G. C. (1994). Conditions and Conditionals: An Investigation of Classical Greek. Amsterdam: Brill. Go to original source...
    114. Weil, S. (2005). The Iliad or the Poem of Force: A Critical Edition. 3rd ed. New York: Peter Lang.
    115. West, M. L. (1998-2000). Homerus: Ilias. 2 vols. Leipzig: Teubner.
    116. Williams, B. (2008). Shame and Necessity. Sather Classical Lectures, 2nd ed. Berkeley: University of California Press. Go to original source...
    117. Wilmott, J. (2007). The Moods of Homeric Greek. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    118. Wilson, G., Shpall, S. (2012). "Action". In: E. N. Zalta (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. URL: http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2012/entries/action/.

    This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0), which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original publication is properly cited. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.


    Return to the content