Full Idea
Can one fancy a state of rage and picture no flushing of the face, no dilation of the nostrils, no clenching of the teeth, no impulse to vigorous action? …A purely disembodied human emotion is a nonentity.
Gist of Idea
Rage is inconceivable without bodily responses; so there are no disembodied emotions
Source
William James (What is an Emotion? [1884], p.194), quoted by Peter Goldie - The Emotions 3 'Bodily'
Book Reference
Goldie,Peter: 'The Emotions' [OUP 2002], p.53
A Reaction
Plausible for rage, but less so for irritation or admiration. Goldie thinks James is wrong. James says if intellectual feelings don't become bodily then they don't qualify as emotions. No True Scotsman!
Related Ideas
Idea 23982 If emotions are 'towards' things, they can't be bodily feelings, which lack aboutness [Goldie]
Idea 24039 All the emotions seem to involve the body, simultaneously with the feeling [Aristotle]