The hierarchy between emotion and thought/reason gets displaced, of course, into a hierarchy between emotions: some emotions are ‘elevated’ as signs of cultivation, whilst others remain ‘lower’ as signs of weakness. The story of evolution is narrated not only as the story of the triumph of reason, but of the ability to control emotions, and to experience the ‘appropriate’ emotions at different times and places (Elias 1978). Within contemporary culture, emotions may even be represented as good or better than thought, but only insofar as they are re-presented as a form of intelligence, as ‘tools’ that can be used by subjects in the project of life and career enhancement (Goleman 1995).
Sara Ahmed, The Cultural Politics of Emotion
Sara Ahmed, The Cultural Politics of Emotion
Any given concept, feeling or belief will be treated as symptoms of a will that wills something. What does the one that says this, that thinks or feels that, will? It is a matter of showing that he could not say, think or feel this particular thing if he did not have a particular will, particular forces, a particular way of being. What does he will the one who speaks, loves or creates? And conversely what does the one who profits from an action that he does not do, the one who appeals to 'disinterestedness', what does he will? And what about the ascetic, and the utilitarians with their concept of utility? And Schopenhauer when he creates the strange concept of a negation of the will? Was this true? But what do they ultimately want, the truth-seekers, those who say: I'm looking for the truth. -- Willing is not an act like any other. Willing is the critical and genetic instance of all our actions, feelings and thoughts.
Gilles Deleuze, Nietzsche and Philosophy
Gilles Deleuze, Nietzsche and Philosophy
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