1. “LOVE AND KNOWLEDGE: EMOTION
IN FEMINIST EPISTEMOLOGY” (1989)
ALISON M. JAGGAR
Presented by Mallory Jagodzinski

2. BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
 Dr. Alison M. Jaggar
 Received her undergrad and
master’s degrees from the
University of London and the
University of
Edinburgh, respectively. Her
doctorate in Philosophy is from
SUNY-Buffalo.
 Currently is a College
Professor of Distinction at the
University of Colorado-Boulder
in both Philosophy and
Women’s and Gender Studies
 Areas of Interest are
philosophy from a feminist
perspective and the gendered
aspect of global poverty
 http://www.colorado.edu/philoso
phy/fac_jaggar.shtml
 http://wgst.colorado.edu/faculty/
alison-jaggar

3. KEY POINTS OF THE TEXT
 Key Argument
 “[B]y construing emotion as epistemologically subversive, the
Western tradition has tended to obscure the vital role of emotion
in the construction of knowledge” (378).
 After sketching a brief history of emotion, value, and
reason, Jaggar moves on to discussing
what, exactly, emotions are.
 Intentional: what the individual defines the physiological
sensation as
 Raised heart rate and uncontrollable shaking could be nerves or anger
 Social Constructs: we learn what emotions are and the
responses which are appropriate; emotions can vary by culture
 Teaching children to express their emotions (usually verbally rather than
physically)
 Active Engagements: we engage with our emotions and can
modify our response if we want to (usually depends on context)
 We can modify how we respond to emotions via practices like therapy

4. KEY POINTS OF THE TEXT
 Emotion and Evaluation: “If
we had no emotional
responses to the world, it is
inconceivable that we should
ever come to value one state
of affairs more highly than
another” (383).
 Basically, they go together.
 The Myth of Dispassionate
Investigation and its
Implications
 Belief that
science=rational, disconnected
from emotion is wrong; we are
not raised in a vacuum
 For Jaggar, this myth continues
to prop up dominant groups
while discrediting the
subordinate
 Outlaw Emotions
 Responses that are
unconventional and do not fit
with dominant perceptions.
 Jaggar sees these emotions as
having political potential behind
them as all who experience
outlaw emotions can come
together and form political
communities to contest the
hegemony of the dominant
group(s).
 Implications
 Emotions are open to critique
and revision
 Standpoint of subordinated
offers clearer view of society
 Knowledge and emotion affect
each other

5. HOW DOES IT FIT?
 Time
 Jaggar’s article came out in 1989, the end of the era
Susan Faludi has termed the backlash and right before
the beginnings of third wave feminism in the mid 1990s.
Is a critique of positivist scholarship.
 Standpoint theorists
 Like many of our articles (Patricia Hill Collins; Sandra
Harding; Nancy Hartsock, etc.) from Week 3, Jaggar
points to standpoint theory as a way to reconsider
science/objectivity

6. MALLORY’S READ
 Weaknesses
 Standpoint theory as
being the only way to
reveal the Truth
 Lack of intersectionality
in terms of practice
 Would have liked more
practical examples
 Strengths
 Raises good points as
to how emotion and
reason are actually
linked to one another
 Incorporation of
hegemony and critical
social theory
 Strong critique of
positivism

7. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
 While Jaggar’s article was published a while ago, I
would like for us to consider how her vision of a
society changed for the better by outlaw emotions
would work with individuals who suffer from
“emotion overload” in their professions (social
workers; therapists; teachers, etc.)
 In a similar vein, can we still have Jaggar’s vision in a
culture in which we experience, for the most part, the
desensitization of violence? Does this desensitization
make it more difficult for an underclass to come together
with their outlaw emotions?
 Do you think that we can still make standpoint
theory happen or do intersectionality and
assemblages make it irrelevant in today’s world?