Emotion: Something more than feelings.
Item
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Title
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Emotion: Something more than feelings.
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Identifier
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AAI9807991
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identifier
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9807991
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Creator
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Robichaud, Allyson Lee.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Virginia Held
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Date
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1997
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Philosophy | Psychology, Cognitive
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Abstract
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In this work I argue for a cognitive view of emotions. Emotions are judgments, however, judgments like no others; they are affective judgments. While it is a mistake to identify emotions with feelings, the phenomenological aspect of emotions cannot be ignored nor denied. One can experience physical upset yet no emotion and feelings do not differentiate emotions; it is judgments which constitute emotions.;Philosophy tends to exclude emotion as a means to explain and/or predict behavior, relying on beliefs and desires. I think this is to cheat ourselves out of a viable means of explanation. I argue that in order to offer a means of rational explanation for the presence of seemingly anomalous or inertial emotions, it is necessary to look for the source of emotions. It turns out that one's emotional history plays a central role in the genesis of one's emotions.;Given the ubiquity of emotion, it is bound to play some role in our lives, and I argue that it is not limited to one of distraction but rather that emotion is often directive. Emotions often serve an ideological role and the exclusion of emotion as a valuable experience is ideological in nature. Emotions play crucial epistemic and axiological roles and to deny their importance is not only wrong, but dangerous.;Finally, I argue in favor of emotion playing a more useful and central role in morality than might be supposed. I think including emotions is a much needed anodyne for the traditional view valorizing dispassionate reasoning. Reasoning alone cannot always give us comprehensive knowledge of, or motivate us to act on, our moral duties and obligations. Indeed, I think to favor either above the other is a great error; both are necessary for a good life to be possible.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
