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Time: 20 hours
Level: Advanced
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 Introduction Resource- This unit investigates certain philosophical questions concerning the nature of emotions.
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| | 1 Introduction: a picture of emotion
- 1 Introduction: a picture of emotion Resource
- Hedley is a rational sort of person. He never jumps to conclusions: when he needs to make up his mind about something, he considers all the evidence available to him, and if he is still not certain, he...
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| | 2 The ‘What is…?’ question
- 2.1 Philosophy and science Resource
- We will consider some different attempts to answer the question ‘What is an emotion?’. Because we shall often need to refer to this question in what follows, I shall call it the ‘What is…?’ question. Before...
- 2.2 Identifying emotions Resource
- The question ‘What is an emotion?’ is a question about emotions in general. But it is impossible to address this question without being aware that there appear to be many different types of emotion. One...
- 2.3 Essential properties and central cases Resource
- What should we expect a finished answer to the ‘What is…?’ question to look like? It might be suggested that we should answer this question by identifying a set of features that are shared by all uncontroversial...
- 2.4 Components, causes and effects Resource
- In this section, I shall say a little more about the shape that we might expect an answer to the ‘What is…?’ question to take. In particular, I would like consider some different claims about the way in...
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| | 3 Emotions as bodily feelings
- 3.1 William James Resource
- In 1890, the philosopher and psychologist William James published his influential work The Principles of Psychology. The book included a chapter on the emotions, in which James advanced a bold new thesis...
- 3.2 Understanding James's account Resource
- James's thesis is striking, but there are some issues that need to be clarified. Before going on to assess James's argument for his thesis, I will explore his position by raising three questions about...
- 3.3 Emotion, motivation and action Resource
- Perhaps one of the most striking features of James's theory is his account of the relationship between emotions and actions. As James points out, this is one aspect of his theory that runs directly counter...
- 3.4 Cognitive and non-cognitive states Resource
- At several points in the Reading, James draws a sharp contrast between emotions and what he terms ‘cognitions’. The distinction between cognitive and non-cognitive states will crop up fairly regularly...
- 3.5 Emotions as passions Resource
- I have already suggested that in stressing the connection between emotions and bodily changes, James might be seen as endorsing the intuitive picture of emotion that I set out earlier on. James's thesis...
- 3.6 Assessing James's argument Resource
- James argues as follows:
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| | References and Acknowledgements | |
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