The Ethics of Tears: A Poetic Inquiry on the Violence of Knowledge

Abstract

This poem explores the epistemic wound that arises when social research abandons its ethical and affective dimensions. Using poetic inquiry, it critiques the cult of objectivity within conventional qualitative methods. “Tears” serve as a metaphor for empathy and moral awareness—elements often erased from academic writing. By positioning the researcher as both observer and witness, the poem enacts reflexivity and suggests that authentic knowing emerges from human vulnerability. As a decolonial gesture, this work seeks to restore humanity to knowledge production, reminding us that every theory carries unrecorded traces of grief.