That was a very interesting essay! I love the distinction of aptness vs instrumentality.
However, the closing paragraphs posed an odd turn of arguments—essentially, the author tries make a move to say, “I reserve the right to be angry because it is one of the few/last instruments I be any kind of productive.” While I agree with assessment, it seems to do a disservice to the author’s argument to draw the attention back to the instrumentality of anger. The whole strength of her argument was that there is some place for anger, just as we grant to aesthetics and beauty and senses of justice, in discourse, that stands before considerations of instrumentality.
Lastly, it is also interesting that this essay expresses some disdain for consequentialism as oppressive. That is another intricate dynamic that may be pertinent to EA.
Cf. I always recommend this excellent philosophy paper “On the aptness of anger”.
That was a very interesting essay! I love the distinction of aptness vs instrumentality.
However, the closing paragraphs posed an odd turn of arguments—essentially, the author tries make a move to say, “I reserve the right to be angry because it is one of the few/last instruments I be any kind of productive.” While I agree with assessment, it seems to do a disservice to the author’s argument to draw the attention back to the instrumentality of anger. The whole strength of her argument was that there is some place for anger, just as we grant to aesthetics and beauty and senses of justice, in discourse, that stands before considerations of instrumentality.
Lastly, it is also interesting that this essay expresses some disdain for consequentialism as oppressive. That is another intricate dynamic that may be pertinent to EA.
I like it! One of my hopes in writing this post was sourcing posts people have related to this theme so I appreciate you sharing this.