more from this thinker     |     more from this text


Single Idea 23972

[filed under theme 18. Thought / A. Modes of Thought / 3. Emotions / a. Nature of emotions ]

Full Idea

In narratives the different elements of an emotion are conceived of as all being part of the same emotion, in spite of its complex, episodic and dynamic features. Verbs expressing emotions don not use continuous tenses, such as 'he is being in love'.

Gist of Idea

A long lasting and evolving emotion is still seen as a single emotion, such as love

Source

Peter Goldie (The Emotions [2000], 2 'What')

Book Ref

Goldie,Peter: 'The Emotions' [OUP 2002], p.13


A Reaction

Goldie is keen on seeing emotions as part of a life narrative. An intriguing problem for the metaphysics of identity. If someone's love for a person comes and goes, is it the same love each time?


The 17 ideas with the same theme [essential nature of an emotion]:

Emotion is a modification of bodily energy, controlling our actions [Spinoza]
Freud said passions are pressures of some flowing hydraulic quantity [Freud, by Solomon]
Rage is inconceivable without bodily responses; so there are no disembodied emotions [James]
An emotion and its object form a unity, so emotion is a mode of apprehension [Sartre]
Emotion is one of our modes of understanding our Being-in-the-World [Sartre]
Feelings are not unchanging, but have a history (especially if they are noble) [Foucault]
I say bodily chemistry and its sensations have nothing to do with emotions [Solomon]
Emotions are judgements about ourselves, and our place in the world [Solomon]
Emotions are defined by their objects [Solomon]
The heart of an emotion is its judgement of values and morality [Solomon]
Emotions can be analysed under fifteen headings [Solomon]
Emotions have both intentionality and qualia [Kim]
Babies show highly emotional brain events, but may well be unaware of them [Carter,R]
'Having an emotion' differs from 'being emotional' [Goldie]
Unlike moods, emotions have specific objects, though the difference is a matter of degree [Goldie]
Emotional intentionality as belief and desire misses out the necessity of feelings [Goldie]
A long lasting and evolving emotion is still seen as a single emotion, such as love [Goldie]