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How Do You Know That You Love Somebody? Philosopher Martha Nussbaum’s Incompleteness Theorem of the Heart’s Truth, from Plato to Proust

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How Do You Know That You Love Somebody? Philosopher Martha Nussbaum’s Incompleteness Theorem of the Heart’s Truth, from Plato to Proust By Maria Popova “The state of enchantment is one of certainty,” W.H. Auden wrote in his commonplace book. “When enchanted, we neither believe nor doubt nor deny: we know, even if, as in the case of a false enchantment, our knowledge is self-deception.” Nowhere is ...
This analysis of love and self-deception presents a compelling case for the limitations of pure rationalism in understanding emotional truth. Nussbaum’s argument—that suffering and vulnerability often reveal what intellect cannot—challenges the dominant Western tradition of privileging reason over emotion. The concept of catalepsis, where intense emotional impressions constitute knowledge, offers a nuanced counterpoint to the idea that truth is solely accessible through logic. However, the piece...