Affectual Intuitionism

Abstract

I ended the discussion in Chapter 4 with the claim that emotions are needed for moral knowledge, especially for particular moral knowledge. In this chapter I will discuss these ideas in more detail. I will argue that emotions are epistemological tools in our discovery of objective moral truths. This requires a different theory of emotions than the ones generally presupposed by Humeans and rationalists. This different theory of emotions rejects the dichotomy between reason and emotion that Humeans and rationalists take for granted. In this theory, we should understand emotions as states that comprise cognitive and affective aspects, or as ‘felt value judgments’. This theory of emotions can be combined with ethical intuitionism to form what I call ‘affectual intuitionism’.