Two Hearts

From my essay collection, Points of Attack (Clash Books, 2020)

There are at least two ways of thinking about the heart. First, there are the ungrounded preferences we have for some things over others. The heart here signifies the inscrutable nature of desire, which may pull against everything rational or ethical; it is then that we invoke the contrast between reasonable thoughts and unreasonable feelings.

But the heart also manages to signify the opposite, something once called the moral sense. We are still firmly in the realm of feeling, but now of a different order. This is the heart not as the antagonist of reason, something alien to it to be worked around like an obstacle, but feeling as the affective emissary of practical reason, to be consulted just when one is besieged by fancy: “Would acting on these passions clash with what I truly feel in my heart?” Far from representing something capricious, the heart is a repository of wisdom, but in the form of feeling, not thought.

Whenever we seek advice, we are so frequently told, in one way or another, to trust our heart, to follow it, consult it. The ubiquity of this reply derives from its double meaning. Are we to trust our unpredictable feelings rather than relying on reason and deliberation? Or are we to consider our principled feelings, as it were, to see if they comport with the decision we are tempted to make? Following your heart can mean either of these things, and frequently this is just the way our confidantes would have it. Take it as you will.