PHILOSOPHY OF EMOTIONS

PRESENTATION BY JULIAN ESTEBAN ZAPATA AND BASED ON:

EMOTIONAL AFFECTIVITY
26.11.08

MIKKO SALMELA
 DIFFERENCES
Emotion vs. feeling Emoción: Estado intencional multimodal
“Emotion”: an intentional multimodal state Sentimiento: Lo que es la semejanza o se asemeja a la
“Feeling”: the what-is-it-likeness of an emotion, intensity emoción, tiene una intensidad, valencia hedonista y unas
(strong vs. weak) and hedonic valence (pleasant vs. dimensiones principales donde ocurre.
painful) as main dimensions
Bodily vs. psychic feelings (Stocker) En lo lingüístico, en varios idiomas no se presentan
No corresponding distinction in Finnish, Swedish, or diferencias entre ellos.
German: The Finnish “tunne”, the Swedish “känsla”, and
the German “Gefühl” all translate as feeling rather than
emotion  counterintuitive consequences
Gilbert Ryle: 7 uses of “feeling” Según Gilbert los sentimientos tienen 7 usos:
1.Perceptual
2.Exploratory
3.Mock-perceptual, metaphorical
4.Sensation
5.Feeling one’s general condition
6.Epistemic
7.Feeling like doing
–senses 1, 3 , 4, and 5 associate with emotion
 EMOTIONAL AFFECTIVITY
A. Noncognitive theories A. Teorías No Cognitivas
James: feelings as sensations of bodily changes - CORPOREAS
Damasio: emotional feelings combine sensations of bodily - James: Cambios corporales
changes with mental images of the presumed cause of - Damasio: Sensación combinada de cambios corporales e
those changes imágenes mentales que generaron dichos cambios,
“Feeling an emotion… consists of having mental images arising
from the neural patterns which represent the changes in
body and brain that make up an emotion.” (Damasio 1999,
280).

B. Cognitive theories B. Teorías Cognitivas

- JUICIOS
1. Strong cognitivism
- Cognitivismo fuerte:
Emotional feelings can be reduced to the propositional
- Los sentimientos reducidos al contenido proposicional junto a
content of emotion together with an attitudinal mode of
un modo actitudinal de manejar dicho contenido.
holding this content.
Stocker: “Once questions about content are resolved, there is
no further question about affectivity, precisely because such
content is affectivity.” - Modos de propuestas actitudinales: Auto-participación e
Proposals for attitudinal mode: self-involved and intense intenso juzgamiento (Salomon), Juzgamiento fresco y
judgments (Solomon); fresh evaluative judgments (Nussbaum); evaluativo (Nussbaum) atención focalizada y sobreevaluación
focused attention and overvaluation (Nash); adverbially
 EMOTION EXPERIENCE
John Lambie & Anthony Marcel: “Consciousness and the Varieties of Emotion Experience: A Theoretical Framework” (2002).

Previous research has paid insufficient attention to world-
focused affective experiences.
The content of emotion is not the same as what underlies the
experience.
An emotion: an appraisal gives rise to an action attitude (AA)
and leaves a record of its own result in an evaluative
description (ED) of the altered self-world relationship or of the
state of self.
Two levels of consciousness in emotion experience:
-Poca atención a las experiencias afectivas enfocadas en el
mundo
El contenido de la emoción difiere a lo que sustenta la
experiencia.
Una emoción: una valoración genera una acción de actitud
(AA) y deja su resultado en la descripción de su evaluación
(ED) de la relación alterada o de el estado del mismo.
Niveles de conciencia en la experiencia de las emociones

1)First-order phenomenal experience 1) Primer orden de Experiencia Fenomenal

An immersed, synthetic, and nonpropositional bodily
experience of what it is like to be in an emotional state.
Attentional focus on the self in term of a particular ED or
AA, or on the world
2)Second-order awareness of the first-order experience. 2) Darse cuenta del segundo orden de la experiencia de
Attentional focus on either the self or the world primer orden
Propositional vs. nonpropositional awareness
Analytic vs. synthetic mode of attention
 THE CONTENT OF 1ST ORDER EMOTION
EXPERIENCE (LAMBIE & MARCEL, 2002)
SELF-FOCUSED WORLD-FOCUSED
EMOTION EVALUATION ACTION

Joy Enhanced Buoyant, light, easy to move, able Open, inviting, welcoming,
supportive,

Sadness Diminished Heavy, unable, weak Empty, closed, burdening,

unattractive

Anger Impeded, compressed, pushed back Ready to push out Impeding, compressing

Fear About to be destroyed, overwhelmed, Self-protecting Overwhelming, piercing,

pierced disintegrative

Shame Stained Shrinking, self-occluding The impinging gaze of others

Pride Augmented Increasing the exposed self The welcoming gaze of others
 THE CONTENT OF 2ND ORDER EMOTION EXPERIENCE
(LAMBIE & MARCEL, 2002)
EMOTION EVALUATIVE DESCRIPTION ACTION ATTITUDE
SELF WORLD SELF WORLD
Anger I am offended X is offensive, blameworthy My urge [want] to attack (X) X [is]-to-be-attacked (by me)

Fear I am in danger X is dangerous My urge [want] to escape from X [is]-to-be-escaped from (by me)
(X)

Joy I am fulfilled The world is fulfilling My [want] urge to interact World [is]-to-be- interacted-with
with (the world) (by me)

Sadness I have failed, been The world is unfulfilling My urge [want] to withdraw World [is]-not-to-be- interacted-
diminished from interaction (with the with (by me)
world)

Shame I am visibly flawed Others’ perception of my flaw My urge [want] to hide myself Others’-gaze-[is]to-be avoided (by
(from others) me)

Pride My worth is enhanced Others’ admiration of me My urge [want] to display Others-[are]to-be-displayed-to (by
myself (to others) me)

[ ] the content of propositional awareness, as distinct from nonpropositional awareness