"The Political Potential of Spontaneous Delight in Other People’s Good Fortune" @ Einstein Forum, Potsdam, 6.12

Together with Alexis Shotwell, with whom I have co-authored the upcoming book "An Ecology of Moralizing", we are giving a - perhaps to some surprising - talk at the "Cultivating Kindness"-Conference at the Einstein Forum in Potsdam on the 6th of December. My personal delight mainly stems from hearing Alexis speak about her Buddhist heritage and how to deal with its more complicated implications in a more radical, anarchist way. I am very curious about this communal venturing-out in new territories of thought for me!

Here is our abstract:

The contemporary world is so difficult; anywhere we look, people are suffering. Under the conditions in which we all live, where everyone needs money to pay for the most basic conditions of their lives, people’s material and affective landscapes are shaped by a certain imperative of selfprotective isolation. Scarcity is not only a political myth justifying the idea that everyone should selfishly guard their own (emotional and practical) resources; it is an orientation animating much of conventional society. Cultivating loving kindness (maitrī) is one compelling technology for reorienting ourselves to behave otherwise. But especially under contemporary conditions, it is essential to bring into any conversation about kindness a consideration of the third of the Buddhist’s ‘immeasurables’: rejoicing (muditā), spontaneous joy in others’ good fortune.

In this talk, we suggest fruitful synergies between this affective technology and specific strands in Western philosophy. Starting from a post-Kantian commitment to non-ideal ethical praxis, we engage a much earlier form of moral philosophy as shaping our mores, or ways of being together. We suggest that shaping collective practices of mutual flourishing benefits from reformulating our understanding of interpersonal ethical engagement, reading muditā as a generative and anti-capitalist feeling.

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