Abstract
It is a familiar feature of our affective psychology that our moods ‘crystalize’ into emotions, and that our emotions ‘diffuse’ into moods. Providing a detailed philosophical account of these affective shifts, as I will call them, is the central aim of this paper. Drawing on contemporary philosophy of emotion and mood, alongside distinctive ideas from the phenomenologically-inspired writer Robert Musil, a broadly ‘intentional’ and ‘evaluativist’ account will be defended. I argue that we do best to understand important features of these affective shifts–which I document across this paper–in terms of intentional and evaluative aspects of the respective states of moods and emotion. At same the time, the account is pitched at the phenomenological level, as dealing with affective shifts primarily in terms of moods and emotions as experiential states, with respect to which it feels-like-something to be undergoing the relevant affective experience. The paper also applies the intentional-evaluative model of affective shifts to anxiety in more detail, developing the idea that certain patterns of affective shift, particularly those that allow for a kind of ‘emotional release’, can contribute to a subject’s well-being.
Highlights
It is a familiar feature of our affective psychology that our moods ‘crystalize’ into emotions, and that our emotions ‘diffuse’ into moods
Anxiety provides a central example: an occurrent emotion of anxiety about an upcoming medical test might diffuse into a generalized anxious mood which concerns ‘everything and nothing’; contrastingly, a generalized anxiety of the latter kind might become more ‘focused’, This article belongs to the topical collection "Worry and Wellbeing: Understanding the Nature, Value, and Challenges of Anxiety", edited by Charlie Kurth and Juliette Vazard
An account of affective shifts promises to shed light on emotions and moods in tandem, and so as standing in important relations to each other. This is welcome within philosophy of emotion, and in affective psychology and science, since more often than not accounts of these states are provided without detailed consideration of how such accounts might explain affective shifts, and more broadly the connections between emotion and mood
Summary
It is a familiar feature of our affective psychology that our moods ‘crystalize’ into emotions, and that our emotions ‘diffuse’ into moods. An account of affective shifts promises to shed light on emotions and moods in tandem, and so as standing in important relations to each other This is welcome within philosophy of emotion, and in affective psychology and science, since more often than not accounts of these states are provided without detailed consideration of how such accounts might explain affective shifts, and more broadly the connections between emotion and mood.. If–as seems independently plausible–emotions and moods are paradigmatically felt states, a phenomenological approach seems especially appropriate Connected to this, such an approach to the affective domain promises to contribute to an understanding of subjects at the personal level, what Daniel Dennett calls ‘the explanatory level of people and their sensations and activities’, rather than in terms of psychological constructs and subpersonal processes.. Connected to this, such an approach to the affective domain promises to contribute to an understanding of subjects at the personal level, what Daniel Dennett calls ‘the explanatory level of people and their sensations and activities’, rather than in terms of psychological constructs and subpersonal processes. In a similar vein, Peter Goldie describes the personal point of view as ‘the point of view of a conscious person, capable of thoughts and feelings...’.5 does a phenomenological analysis of emotions and moods clearly contribute to such an understanding of subjects at the personal level, but within this context questions concerning the link between a person’s emotions, moods and well-being arise and can be discussed in a way which is sensitive to their ‘lived experience’
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