Today emotion is defined as a natural instinctive state of mind deriving from one's circumstances, mood, or relationship with others (Merriam-Webster, 2014). What is presently know as emotions, in earlier times, was referred to as passions. The term ‘emotion’ early referred not to feelings, but to physical movement or migration (it originally came from the Latin word emoveo, to move out or move away). It continued to be used to mean a moving, stirring agitation in a physical sense until the early nineteenth century (Gouk & Hills, 2005, p. 16-17). An assumption by rationalists dating back to the ancient Greeks has been that higher forms of human existence – mental activity, rationality, foresight, and decision making - can be hijacked by the “pirates” of emotion (Cacioppo & Gardner, 1999, p.). Emotion is treated conventionally as opposed to the human ability, reason.
The disregard of emotions’ role in the endeavor to understanding human behavior is very likely based on the long-standing and misconceived impression that the nature of emotions are irrational and disruptive, something that merely happens to people rather than that people doing it voluntarily, and the impact of emotions on action and reason is at best indirect and insignificant. (Zhu & Thagard, 2002, p. 19). Emotion is primitive, inhumane, destructive, unpredictable and undependable, and therefore needs to be controlled by reason. The relationships between feelings and the soul and between the body and soul were central to discourses on emotions throughout early Greek philosophy. A lot of the early modern day concepts about emotions are said to have been influenced by By Aristotle and The Stoics. Several philosophers following seem to argue between the two. The purpo...
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...as indeed an Aristotelian. Hobbes dismisses the Stoics treatment of emotions. He takes a jab at the Stoics expressing that to be without passion is to be without "wit" altogether. One touchstone of Hobbes' account is his materialist psychology. Criticizing the “metaphorical” sense in which passions are motions, he instead identifies them with material movement. Hobbes maintains that life itself requires motion and there are forms of motions within a living body. Involuntary motion, which passions stand between the characteristic of, all living things, and animals possess. Voluntary motion is the means by which animals move their bodies through the world, driven by appetites and aversions (Gross, 2001, p. 316-317).
The philosophical attempt to understand human emotion begins with an inward-looking investigation as awareness of emotion’s effect on occurrence increases.
One famous pioneer in this area is Ekman (1973 in Shiraev & Levy, 2007, 2004) who classified six basic facial expressions as being universal and reflecting most emotional states. They are happy, sad, anger, disgust, surprised and fearful. Ekman (1973) proposed that the universality of emotions allows individuals to empathise with others and enables us to read other’s feelings therefore emotions must serve an adaptive purpose hence supporting the claim that they are universal (Darwin, 1972 in John, Ype, Poortinga, Marshall & Pierre 2002). Moreover, emotions are widely accepted to accompany...
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.
This paper will examine Robert C. Solomon's Emotions and Choices article, to best identify what anger is, and to what extent a rational human being is responsible for their anger. Firstly, Solomon's argument must be described. A quick summation of Solomon's argument can be found in the following four points: Emotions are judgements, emotions are chosen, emotions serve a purpose, and emotions are rational.1 To quote Solomon, he explains that “Emotions are not occurrences, and do not happen to us. They ... may be chosen like an action.”2
Emotion has been long regarded as the only beast that cannot be tamed, as there is always something that irritates even the most stoic of people. However, in a classic play by Shakespeare, “Othello”, a character boldly states that emotion cannot just be tamed, but controlled. This character, Iago, argues that reasoning is the key to controlling emotion. Iago is erroneous. Because emotion cannot be concealed physically, and is also the only way to differentiate between people, reason cannot control emotion and never will be able to.
Van Goozen, Stephanie H. M. (ed.). Emotions: Essays on Emotion Theory. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, Hillsdale, N.J., 1994
(6) Rhetoric. 1378a20. "The emotions are all those feelings that so change men as to affect their judgements, and that are also attended by pain or pleasure. Such are anger, pity, fear and the like with their opposites."
"And this is of course the difficult job, is it not: to move the spirit from it's nowhere pedestal to a somewhere place, while preserving its dignity and importance."
As humans, emotions are an unavoidable occurrence. People get angry, sad, happy, surprised, etcetera. In some cases, it is harder
By assessing the personal meaning of events, emotion comes up. What’s more, positive emotions have not only a role of marking happiness, but also a function to continue
In the Ted talk, “The Role of Human Emotions in Science and Research,” by Llona Stengel, explains her belief that human emotions should play a greater role.Rather than nothing in the science and research. The purpose of her talk is to show that emotions mean more to the science of logic and facts, and she explains it through different examples, Star Trek, her own experience, and what emotions really are.
Sherer, K. (2006). L'avenir des Emotions. In Revenue Européenne des Sciences Sociales (RESS). Retrieved April 21, 2014, from http://ress.revues.org/314?lang=fr
Key principles regarding emotions have changed several times. Currently there are a total of seven theoretical principles. The first principle is that that emotion feeling derives from evolution and neurobiological development is the key psychological component of emotions and consciousness and its more often inherently adaptive than maladaptive (Izard, 2009). This principle seems to be aligned with the evolutionary approach. This principle is also aligned with the origins of emotions. Russell (2003)
It is a well-known fact that different factors affect on human behavior as well as various aspects of people’s life. Among them the emotions detect a powerful force on humans. Strong emotions may cause people to take actions they might not perform as usual, or obviate situations that they generally enjoy. Psychologists, researchers, and philosophers have proposed a set of different theories that explain how and why people experience the emotions. I have chosen two theories of emotion that I am interested in such as: the James-Lange Theory of Emotion and the Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion. This paper describes those theories by comparing and contrasting them;
Emotions play a role in everyday life in all things big or small, but particularly in making decisions. When an individual is deciding on what to do, they take into account what their expected emotions would be, but the determining factor is the immediate emotions they feel while making the decision. With expected emotions, an individual will think about how happy or upset they may feel for instance if they win a monetary cash prize, or gamble too much and walk away with nothing. Often ...
Have you ever wondered why people have certain reactions? I chose chapter eight on emotions for my reflection paper because emotions are something that everyone has and feels, yet cannot always explain or react to in the way you would expect. Personally, I have never been great at responding to emotions in a way that I would not regret in the future. Thus, naturally being drawn to this chapter as a way to expand my knowledge on how to react to things more positively. I also wanted to learn why I feel a certain way after events that would not affect most people and be reassured about my feelings. Opposite to that, it is nice to see that, while not always productive, others have the same reaction habits. Overall, emotions are a complicated