Single Idea 23981

[catalogued under 18. Thought / A. Modes of Thought / 3. Emotions / a. Nature of emotions]

Full Idea

Can one fancy a state of rage and picture no flushing of the face, no dilation of the nostrils, no clenching of the teeth, no impulse to vigorous action? …A purely disembodied human emotion is a nonentity.

Gist of Idea

Rage is inconceivable without bodily responses; so there are no disembodied emotions

Source

William James (What is an Emotion? [1884], p.194), quoted by Peter Goldie - The Emotions 3 'Bodily'

Book Reference

Goldie,Peter: 'The Emotions' [OUP 2002], p.53


A Reaction

Plausible for rage, but less so for irritation or admiration. Goldie thinks James is wrong. James says if intellectual feelings don't become bodily then they don't qualify as emotions. No True Scotsman!

Related Ideas

Idea 23982 If emotions are 'towards' things, they can't be bodily feelings, which lack aboutness [Goldie]

Idea 24039 All the emotions seem to involve the body, simultaneously with the feeling [Aristotle]