On the Deeply Moving and the Merely Touching

Literary and art critics often link yet distinguish between ‘moving’ and ‘touching’ characters, scenes and artworks. For instance, one is deeply moved by the Hellenistic statue of the pious Trojan priest Laocoön and his sons, slaughtered by Poesidon’s sea snakes as he tries to save the city by revealing the wooden horse’s secret. One is touched by the contemporary sculpture of a nameless boy trying to withdraw a thorn from the sole of his foot, the so-called Spinario. It has recently been argued that (a) being moved is a specific emotion, (b) that its formal object is the thin goodness of exemplified final, important and impersonal thick values, and (c) that being touched is an attenuated form of that phenomenon (Cova and Deonna 2014; Deonna 2020). First, I dispute that the values that move us must be impersonal, since we can be moved by the personal goodness of being loved, free or healthy. Second, I argue that being touched should be considered
a distinct type of affective phenomenon. To support this claim I refer to apparent differences between the formal objects that the two affective phenomena relate to as well as to dissimilarities in cognitive sophistication and phenomenology. Drawing on a wide range of examples I suggest that we are touched by that which invites love. Vulnerable, innocently suffering and affectionate beings are touching insofar as they need and will be responsive to love.

This will be a hybrid event.

For more information and the webinar link, please see http://www.swedishcollegium.se/subfolders/Events.html.