Abstract
Abstract A family-resemblance approach to categorisation, such as that developed by Wittgenstein, provides a basis for conceiving how various historical types of ‘anger’ can be recognised as similar despite their variability and lack of core defining features. Thomas Dixon’s essay applies this approach in a way that avoids radical relativism and acknowledges general human emotional capabilities. His approach may arguably be extended to commonalities between emotions of humans and animals, which would have interesting implications for the history of emotion.
Highlights
Historians of emotion face a difficult problem
A family-resemblance approach to categorisation, such as that developed by Wittgenstein, provides a basis for conceiving how various historical types of ‘anger’ can be recognised as similar despite their variability and lack of core defining features
They must simultaneously assert that their topic – be it ‘anger’, some other emotion, or ‘emotion’ itself – is in historical flux, while asserting that their history addresses a coherent topic, that it is a history of something despite that something’s inconstancy
Summary
Historians of emotion face a difficult problem. They must simultaneously assert that their topic – be it ‘anger’, some other emotion, or ‘emotion’ itself – is in historical flux, while asserting that their history addresses a coherent topic, that it is a history of something despite that something’s inconstancy. Emotions: History, Culture, Society 4 (2020) 39–42 brill.com/ehcs A family-resemblance approach to categorisation, such as that developed by Wittgenstein, provides a basis for conceiving how various historical types of ‘anger’ can be recognised as similar despite their variability and lack of core defining features.
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