(An)Aesthetic Emotions: A Pragmatist View of Sensibility Change

This article presents a pragmatist framework for the sociology of emotions by introducing the concepts of aesthetic and anaesthetic emotions. Aesthetic emotions arise from disruptions of habits, generating emotional qualities that unify experience and reshape sensibility, and thus influence future emotional experiences. Anaesthetic emotions remain routinized, failing to expand sensibility or guide future experiences. I argue that aesthetic emotions are key to understanding the affective grounds of civic and political engagement. By focusing on aesthetics as an affective process, I highlight how sensibility contributes to recognizing public issues and the potential for collective action. I also explore how anaesthetic dynamics—often rooted in uncultivated experiences, structural apathy, or institutionalized habits—limit the transformative potential of emotions. By tracing how sensibility is cultivated or neglected, this framework shows its powerful (an)aesthetic effects on everyday life and the public sphere.