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A Feminist Practice Of The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of the Liberal Arts POSITIVE PHILOSOPHY: A FEMINIST PRACTICE OF AFFECTIVE THERAPY AND POLITICAL RESISTANCE A Dissertation in Philosophy and Women’s Studies by Cori L. Wong © 2013 Cori L. Wong Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2013 ii The dissertation of Cori L. Wong was reviewed and approved* by the following: Shannon Sullivan Professor of Philosophy, Women’s Studies, and African and African American Studies Head of the Department of Philosophy Dissertation Adviser Chair of Committee Nancy Tuana DuPont/Class of 1949 Professor of Philosophy, Women’s Studies, and Science, Technology & Society Sarah Clark Miller Associate Professor of Philosophy Susan Squier Julia Brill Professor of Women’s Studies, English, and Science, Technology & Society Ladelle McWhorter James Thomas Professor of Philosophy and Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies Special Member *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School. iii ABSTRACT What relationships can be drawn between affective states and epistemological states? What do affective experiences, such as anger or pleasure, have to do with political projects of resisting oppression? How can philosophy better inform political practice? Addressing these questions from a feminist perspective, this dissertation develops the concept of “positive philosophy” as a practice of resistance that therapeutically works on and through the affective experiences of socially marginalized individuals. By exploring connections between psyche and soma, experience and embodiment, and theory and practice, I show how systems of domination operate and maintain themselves through the psychosomatic production of negative affects and their harmful physiological effects. Chapter 1 critically analyzes the reclamation of emotion and affect in feminist epistemology as valuable resources for progressive theorizing by showing how even experiences of “outlaw emotions”—such as anger and rage at racism—can evidence the same problematic desire to make righteous knowledge claims that can be found in dominant discourse. Chapter 2 explores how the debilitating and disempowering effects of oppression are not merely psychological but also manifest in one’s physiological body. I stress the need to address the embodied consequences of oppression presented in negative affects as a mechanism of oppression. Chapter 3 critically highlights positive psychology’s therapeutic method of treating negative affects by cultivating positive affects while cautioning against its individualistic emphasis, which lacks sensitivity for larger ethical and political contexts. My argument culminates in Chapter 4, which combines the therapeutic method of positive psychology with feminist political projects to develop a conception of “positive philosophy.” I argue that the unique mode of philosophical reflection in “positive philosophy,” which entails taking pleasure in one’s cultivated ability to think without certainty, can generate positive affective experiences that undo the negative psychosomatic and affective effects of oppression and discourage the production of righteous knowledge claims. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................v Introduction ..........................................................................................................................1 Chapter Outlines ........................................................................................................................ 20 Chapter 1. Contextualizing Outlaw Emotions and Righteous Knowledge Claims ...........28 I. The Feminist Reclamation of Emotion and Affect in Epistemology ..................................... 31 II. Outlaw Emotions and Politically Progressive Theorizing .................................................... 40 III. Rethinking How and Why We Think About the Things We Think About ......................... 53 Chapter 2. The Negative Affective Effects of Oppression ................................................70 I. The Negative Psychological Effects of Oppression ............................................................... 73 II. The Negative Physiological Effects of Oppression .............................................................. 79 A. Psychosomatic: Psychological Intricacies of the Soma .................................................... 79 B. The Transmission of Affect: Social Origins of Biological Effects ................................... 92 III. The Political and Philosophical Significance of Negative Affective Burdens .................. 101 Chapter 3. Affective Therapies ........................................................................................109 I. Psychopharmacology and Addressing Negative Affects ..................................................... 112 II. Physiology and Positive Psychology .................................................................................. 129 III. The Politics of Positive Affects ......................................................................................... 139 Chapter 4. Affective Therapy, Feminist Politics, and Positive Philosophy .....................151 I. Philosophy as Therapy ......................................................................................................... 155 II. Positive Affective Experiences, Pleasure, and Not Knowing ............................................. 166 III. Positive Philosophy as Affective Therapy and Political Resistance .................................. 176 IV. Concluding Remarks ......................................................................................................... 183 Bibliography ....................................................................................................................193 v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The arguments contained within this dissertation have been influenced by the ideas and support of many other people, to whom I am deeply grateful. My own approach to and ideas about philosophy have been heavily shaped by many of the scholars whose work I’ve read for years and to which I refer in these chapters. In addition to acknowledging them for the effort, courage, and dedication that went into producing such fabulous works that have inspired and empowered me in my own life, I also want to acknowledge the Pennsylvania State University, and the Departments of Philosophy and Women’s Studies in particular, for providing me with the opportunity and support to continue my own philosophical exploration. I have also had the great fortune of being able to work closely with some of these great scholars over the years in seminars, independent studies, and institutes, including Drs. Shannon Sullivan, Ladelle McWhorter, and Nancy Tuana, and the other members on my committee, Drs. Susan Squier and Sarah Clark Miller. In addition to learning from their different examples of how one can do philosophy, be a philosopher, and engage with feminist theory, I have benefitted from numerous philosophical and personal conversations with them that helped keep me true to my own philosophical goals and values. My ideas were especially able to gain traction thanks to the hundreds of students with whom I interacted in classrooms, and whose interest, enthusiasm, challenges, curiosity, and honesty helped me further realize the important personal and political work that can been done in a room full of people who are willing to ask hard questions and think and learn together, without ever really coming to know solid answers. I have vi learned so much from my students, and I appreciate their role in pushing my own thinking in ways that support the idea of doing theory and practice together. Throughout the writing process and my philosophical journey up to this point, I am very grateful for the support from my family and close friends, many of whom received bits of my writing along the way, read complete drafts of chapters, and extended encouragement and validation on the days when I struggled to stay motivated or felt like it might all just be too much. And I must extend a very special thanks to my dear friend, Bryn Gelaro, for sitting with me in cafes for an untold number of hours over the past year and half of writing, and for helping me do everything from draw out concept maps on napkins to edit transition sentences between paragraphs to laugh and cry and dance and live a full, rich life. 1 Introduction The goal of this dissertation is to develop the concept of positive philosophy, a philosophical practice that can serve as a method of affective therapy and a mode of political resistance. The central characteristic of positive philosophy is cultivating the ability to take pleasure in thinking without certainty—i.e., to cultivate positive affective experiences in the face of not knowing. In other words, positive philosophy hinges on a particular relationship between affective and epistemological states. More generally, my conception of positive philosophy exists at the intersection of philosophy, physiology, psychology, and politics and combines diverse insights from neurobiology, positive psychology, and feminist theory. My argument for positive philosophy grows out of an interdisciplinary investigation of relationships between theory and practice, psyche and soma, emotion and affect, oppression and resistance, and methods for therapeutic healing. Given the array of concepts, themes, and
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