Emotions as Cognitive Functions: The Similar Views of Meeker and Jaggar

On Wednesday, April 3, Ms. Joy Meeker came to DePauw University to give a lecture entitled Facing Discomfort: Engaging Justice. After listening to Ms. Meeker’s stance on emotion as it relates to conflict in our society, many parallels could be derived from our study of Alison Jaggar’s Love and Knowledge: Emotion in Feminist Epistemology. Much like Jaggar, Meeker disagrees with the positivist view that emotions are an uncontrollable venting of feelings; rather, she believes that emotions should be considered and cognitively processed because it is an unavoidable factor in our thinking processes. Both Meeker and Jaggar agree that it is dangerous to rely on the social constructs that our society has created in regards to emotion. Meeker then proceeds to look at emotion through a positional lens and relate it to a more complete understanding of other viewpoints throughout the conflict resolution process.

Busting the Myth That Women Aren't As Ambitious As Men

Link to article:  http://www.forbes.com/sites/kathycaprino/2011/11/28/busting-the-myth-that-women-arent-as-ambitious-as-men/

This article serves as an extension of the thought introduced in class pertaining to women in the workforce.  As women continue to join the corporate world, I am curious as to why there are very few female CEOs leading large firms.  This is the 21st century and it appears that women have not completely broken through the glass ceiling.  On the contrary, I am not sure if women have even cracked it.  One of the ideas proposed to scarce female leadership is attributed to women lacking as much ambition as the male counterpart.  I am not completely convinced that women lack ambition but they certainly could face different trade-offs for being driven professionally as compared to men.  This article highlights some of the costs for ambitious women as well as the connotations of "ambition" when applied to women and men.