Understanding the Nature of Emotion

Abstract

We seek an understanding of emotion and a better grasp of the role that emotions should play in our lives.1 We aim to move past the wholesale evaluation of emotion as, for example, “useful” or “dangerous.” In this chapter we will canvass two prevalent theories of emotion, affective and cognitive approaches, and see that they each privilege different types of emotionality as well as different types of emotions (as their main exemplars). Nevertheless, there are many different types of emotions and emotional experiences. Some emotions are simple, and yet some are very complicated. If we can say anything about the nature of emotions in general, it is perhaps that they involve some intersection between the mind and body. Kant’s theory of emotion—as bodily feelings that are caused by various mental states (including perception)—helps to address a number of perplexities left by the current breach between theories. Not only does it show us the way that emotions are both mental and physical, it also helps us to make sense of the variety of emotional experiences. Moving beyond Kant, we will consider the ubiquitous nature of emotion and meditate on the question of whether or not we are always having an emotion. Similarly, we will note that, far from being “in the moment,” emotions are often characterized by our connection to the past or future.