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Self-Knowledge and Hume's Phenomenology of the Passions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2021

Margaret Watkins
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Abstract

Taxonomies of the passions have long claimed to serve a quest for self-knowledge, by specifying conditions under which certain passions arise, formal objects they possess, and qualities essential to their particular feelings. I argue that David Hume's theory of the passions provides resources for a different kind of self-knowledge – a sceptical self-knowledge depending on our ability to articulate how the passions feel rather than always identifying our passions as tokens of an identifiable passion-type. These resources are distinctions between four qualitative aspects that passions may possess – pleasantness or painfulness, calmness or violence, invigoration or softening, and directedness or lack thereof towards specific actions. Reflection on these aspects produces a more accurate understanding of the nature of our emotions and chastens our judgmental tendencies in ways that benefit both self and others.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy , Volume 96 , Issue 4 , October 2021 , pp. 577 - 602
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Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 2021

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