Emotions Are Perceptions Of Bodily Changes

Let’s begin to examine what Jagger’s method of investigative dispassionate belief means. Jagger realizes that emotion, like sensory observation is ignored or not taken into consideration in western epistemology. Jagger believes however, that emotions are needed for human survival and thus, emotions have an essential and useful value and “without emotion, human life would be unthinkable”. (pp.190, Jagger)

When contemplating the relationship between the mind and body, most philosophers advocate either dualism, the view that the mind and body belong to the mental and physical categories respectively, or physicalism, the stance that there is only the physical. (Gertler 108) Brie Gertler aligns herself with the former perspective, and her essay In Defense of Mind-Body Dualism aims to disprove physicalism by establishing the possibility of experiencing pain without the firing of C-fibers, which physicalists believe is identical to pain. (110) She champions thought experiments as best for determining matters of possibility, but claims these “conceivability tests” are only effective when utilizing “sufficiently comprehensive” concepts. After an exposition of why Gertler thinks “sufficiently comprehensive” concepts are required and why she believes pain fits this classification, I will argue that her

outer world and our inner life we experience as well as the value of a shared and considered

Armstrong begins his paper with a question for the reader of what it means to have a mind. It is well understood that man has the ability to perceive, to think, to feel, and so on, but what does it mean to perceive, to think, and to feel? The answer, he believes, lies in science. Seeing that science is constantly and rapidly gaining ground, he asserts that “...we can give a complete account of man in purely physico-chemical terms” (295?) Pointing out the fact that this view has been accepted by various scientists throughout time, he explains it is the most reliable way to approach the mind-body problem.

When you feel a knot in your stomach after finding out you got a low grade you experience a physiological reaction. We experience motion when external stimuli cause physiological changes.  This is the organismic view of emotions.

Attempts to define “emotion” have proved to be rather difficult. Instead of searching for a comprehensive definition, Gross (2011) describes the three core features of emotions. First, emotions occur when an individual decides that a situation is relevant to his or her goals. Second, emotions are multi-faceted, and involve both subjective and physiological experiences, as well as behaviors. The third feature involves the authoritative nature of emotions. They have the powerful ability to interrupt ongoing processes, assert their priority over other activities, and force their way into awareness. For example, some traditions describe emotions as “disorganized interruptions of mental activity” (Salovey & Mayer, 1989). Emotions are such an

Emotions are often thought to be personal. One may say “I am sad.” or “I am mad.” or I am scared.” and frequently we believe those emotions are inhabiting just the body in which they were created.

3. What is the evolutionary view of emotion as originally proposed by Darwin? What is the adaptive value of emotion? What evidence suggests

Perhaps one of the most ‘human’ capacities that we have is our ability to feel. We can feel anger,

Emotions play a huge role in our lives. They control how we go about our day and feel toward loved ones. They influence our morals and ethics; they govern our worlds. How we feel dictates our outlook on the world. When one is sad and lonely, society, to him or her, is no longer sympathetic; life is hopeless and empty. “Like thunderclouds, in the distance they look black, over our heads scarcely gray,” says famous German Romantic writer Jean Paul. In addition, our emotions control our physical appearances, portraying, to the world, how we feel inside. For example, Arthur Dimmesdale from The Scarlet Letter looked “thin and white-cheeked” (183) when he felt guilty for his lustful sin. In fact, The Scarlet Letter clearly portrays how the emotions of its characters influence their perspectives and appearances, which is similarly represented in our lives today.

In 1973, American Philosophy Professor Robert Solomon wrote an extraordinary paper called “Emotions and Choice”. He had a controversial and unique perspective that emotions were judgments and as such people have the ability to change these emotions with inputs from other judgments. Years later another Philosophy Professor named Jenefer Robinson countered Solomon with the paper Startle in The Journal of Philosophy in 1995. This paper used the example of involuntary muscle movement to prove that we can have emotions without judgments and therefore we cannot completely control emotions. Finally, Solomon returns to defend and amend his argument to fire back against critics. He asserts that emotions contain judgments, but that doesn’t always mean cognitive judgments, there are also bodily judgments therefore we can amend emotional responses to situations over time and ultimately affect and control emotions.

What is an emotion? William James and Jean-Paul Sartre present two different arguments regarding what constitutes an emotion. This paper will explore William James' analysis of emotion as set out in his 1884 essay . It will attempt to discover the main points of his view, and then present Sartre's rebuttal of this view taken from his essay on emotions . Concluding with an explanation regarding why Sartre's account is flawed and James's argument is the stronger of the two, it will use outside examples to demonstrate the various weaknesses and strengths within the two perspectives.

Chapter 1 explains the work of a Harvard psychologist named William James. William published the article “What is an Emotion?” in a philosophical journal entitled Mind in 1884. His paper is an argument for the primacy and necessity of bodily systems in producing emotional feelings. James-Lange theory states that physiological arousal instigates the experience of emotion. A Harvard physiologist, Walter Cannon, roundly criticized James’ theory, claiming that, according to the Cannon Bard theory, physiological changes follow emotional expression.

For many people, they live their lives based on emotions. Emotions of happiness, love, success, and many more, could possibly be the most satisfying feelings. Except we commonly experience unpleasant emotions. There are emotions of anger, hatred, sadness, and disgrace. A very important question in the understanding of the human mind and highly related to cognitive science, is how do these emotions affect human cognition and the impact on our abilities to be rational? To tackle this question, we need to understand what emotions are, but not solely in the manner we are all familiar with, we need to understand them from a cognitive nature involving our physiology, psychology, and environment. Cognition, according to the Oxford definition

Psychophysical dualism — the distinction between mind and body — is the counterposition between essentially irreducible elements: the mind and body. Such a dualism implies the main ontological problem of the philosophy of cognitive science and philosophy of mind: the mind-body problem (MBP). The dualism and the referred-to problem has been insistently discussed in the philosophical tradition and several solutions have been proposed. Such solutions are properly philosophical or require a scientific approach. First, I will expound the philosophical solution to the MBP proposed by Descartes, to be followed by an exposition of Ryle's criticisms to the solution. Second, from Ryle's criticism, I will deduce