The Slow Time of Rumination: A Project in the Human Sciences

At the Academy, Anderson will work on her next book project, “The Slow Time of Rumination,” a cross-disciplinary inquiry into a specific form of thinking—rumination—central to the moral life. Anderson argues that some of the most influential frameworks for understanding human thought—in psychology, in moral and political philosophy, and in cognitive science—have failed to recognize the quality, form, and significance of slow, persistent ruminative processes oriented toward experiences of moral shock or disturbance. She considers experiences of profound loss, grief, regret, or injury, including those fundamental assaults on dignity designated as status-injury. Extending key arguments from her previous work, she demonstrates that rumination is a productive moral process and not merely a psychological symptom of trauma. Her account of rumination draws on the literary tradition in order to deepen understandings of moral and political life across the human sciences. This integrative approach brings the slow time of literary rumination into dialogue with cognitive science (with its conception of fast and slow thinking), moral philosophy (which emphasizes choice, decision, and action), psychology (with its extensive literature on trauma), and political philosophy (whose key terms are judgment and deliberation).