THE ROUTE OF GOODNESS. EPISTEMIC EMOTIONS, SELF-TRANSFORMATION, AND PERFECTION

Abstract

The aim of this essay is to detect the role of epistemic emotions in the development of rationality as human perfection. I take the development of excellence as a process of self-transformation, broadening the notion of rationality to include affective powers, and discussing the eudaimonic value of wisdom. Thus, I depict the perfectionist route that brings the epistemic agent to wisdom as prudential value, explaining why being in the route of goodness matters for the agent’s happiness. In doing so, I refer to the account of epistemic emotions as building blocks of intellectual virtues [Candiotto 2017], arguing for one of its tenets, the one for which epistemic emotions have the capacity to transform the character of the epistemic agent beneficially.