Emotions as judgments of value

A Philosophical Dialogue

Abstract

This paper, published a few years before Upheavals of Thought, proposes in a dialogical form the central theses of the first chapter of the masterpiece, and represents an example of how one can do philosophy through the analysis of own emotional life. Nussbaum defends the cognitive value of emotions and their important role for a meaningful human life facing two opposite extremist theses – the one according to which emotions are expressions of weakness to be rejected, and the one according to which they represent our “purest” essence to be followed. Here, the- se two visions are embodied by the author’s parents themselves: Nussbaum talks with them by not silencing the intense emotions she has towards them, on the contrary, making them emerge as an integral part of the philosophical reflection.