ABSTRACT
Although affects are as old as human culture, their study has changed dramatically after the neuroscientific turn that promises to shed some light on their biological causation, thus suggesting new ways of understanding them and their relation to subjectivity. Therefore, the social sciences cannot go on as if this systematic observation of the brain would not be taking place. Political theorizing about political affects, in particular, must take critically into account what neuroscientists and psychologists are saying, lest they produce shallow normative prescriptions without somatic validity. How do emotions emerge? How do we actually make moral or political decisions? Is the way we perceive political phenomena affectively biased and, if so, where do these biases come from? These are just some of the questions that must be answered before an informed view of political affectivity can be developed. This chapter will offer an overview of the difficult yet entangled relations between neurosciences and the social sciences dealing with affects and will discuss how and to which extent they can converge and dialogue.
