Emotions at the Heart of Social Transformation: A Reading from John Dewey
The American philosopher John Dewey has developed a specific theory of emotions that provides a renewed approach to the question of social transformation. Dewey’s theory is valuable because it is a useful tool for unifying modern theories of emotions: fundamentally non-dualistic, it asserts that emotion is what connects us to others or to our environment. Far from being a purely internal phenomenon, the emergence of an emotion depends on our mood, our personal history, and the social and cultural context in which we live. The theory thus proposes a dynamic analysis that takes into account the history of the relationship. In particular, the emotion has a power of social transformation which is exercised at the level of the individual but also at the collective level. Institutions, habits, rules of life, are therefore not fixed and evolve themselves with the emotions they generate. In this analysis, emotion is what signals and guides the change of habit. But it can also happen that a routine or an emotional habit freezes us in a posture that prevents any transformation. Dewey’s approach therefore asks us to consider how the articulation between habits and individual emotions leads to lasting and sustainable social transformation. Does this depend on the « quality » of the emotion? Is the power of emotions the power of an « ordinary » emotion? Is this power limited?