1. From where come from emotions? 1.1. What is an emotion and why do we have them? Some

definitions

Jordi Vallverdú

Philosophy Department

Before: anger, sadness, surprise, worry …

After: joy, surprise (again), anger (again),…

There is a strong disagreement about what emotions are, because of:

A. Disciplinary divergences (methodologies, instruments, models,…):

Philosophy, Psychology, Neurology, Sociology, Anthropology, ….

B. Emotions imply a private experience.

What is an emotion?

So…

Paraphrasing Augustine of Hippo (Confessions, XI, 14),

4th-5th Centuries CE:

“What then is an emotion? If no one asks me, I

know what it is. If I wish to explain it to him

who asks, I do not know”

Affective phenomena:

Emotion:

1. A strong feeling deriving from one’s circumstances, mood, or

relationships with others.

2. Instinctive or intuitive feeling as distinguished from reasoning

or knowledge.

Affect: Touch the feelings of; move emotionally.

Mood : A temporary state of mind or feeling.

Feeling: An emotional state or reaction.

Emotional: Relating to a person’s emotions.

Anyhow….some initial lay definitions http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english

Vicious cycle!

Feeling

Emotion

Feeling

Emotion

Affective phenomena:

Emotion: multi-situated body mechanism to give semantic

meaning and coordination to internal and external data in order

to create action states.

Affect: outward, physical signs of emotion.

Mood : pervasive emotion over a longer period of time

• Character/personality

Feeling: the self perception of an emotional event.

Ops! Some more academic definitions…

Bees: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111208142019.htm Cocroaches : https://www.sciencenews.org/article/cockroach-personalities-can-speed-or-slow-group-decisions

Anger

Sadness

Fear

Surprise

Interactive Social processes

Emotions fulfill several purposes

A. Somatic /physiological: regulating homeostatic processes

B. Behavioral/expressive: sharing clues about internal states and selecting behavior

C. Cognitive/interpretative: driving decision-making processes

D. Experiential/subjective: flavoring personally the Self data binding.

Why do we need them? Their multimodal nature

Pain Cry Avoid painful input Fear A B C D

Lutz, C. (1988), Unnatural emotions, USA: UCP Anthropological studies of Ifaluk (Southwest Pacific)

“Emotional experience is not precultural but preeminently cultural”, p. 5.

Main debates

Which is it’s nature and essence?

A. Psychobiological (and/or universal)

B. Symbolic/Ideological (culturally created)

There is no true agreement among experts about its definition.

(Human) Emotions are a mixture of bodily and cultural processes.

Emotions are multimodal.

End remarks