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Single Idea 23967

[filed under theme 18. Thought / A. Modes of Thought / 3. Emotions / f. Emotion and reason ]

Full Idea

It is perfectly intelligible and entirely human to experience an emotion when seeing a low-flying bat, where we would not want to say that the experience was either rational or irrational.

Gist of Idea

Some emotions are direct responses, and neither rational nor irrational

Source

Peter Goldie (The Emotions [2000], Intro)

Book Ref

Goldie,Peter: 'The Emotions' [OUP 2002], p.3

A Reaction

Goldie is attacking the common tendency of philosophers to over-intellectualise emotions. This example makes his point conclusively.

The 34 ideas from Peter Goldie

23966 The personal view can still be objective, so I call sciences 'impersonal', rather than objective [Goldie]
23967 Some emotions are direct responses, and neither rational nor irrational [Goldie]
23968 If reasons are seen impersonally (as just causal), then feelings are an irrelevant extra [Goldie]
23969 We have feelings of which we are hardly aware towards things in the world [Goldie]
23970 Emotions are not avocado pears, with a rigid core and changeable surface [Goldie]
23971 Emotional thought is not rational, but it can be intelligible [Goldie]
23978 'Having an emotion' differs from 'being emotional' [Goldie]
23979 Emotional responses can reveal to us our values, which might otherwise remain hidden [Goldie]
23976 If we have a 'feeling towards' an object, that gives the recognition a different content [Goldie]
23975 Learning an evaluative property like 'dangerous' is also learning an emotion [Goldie]
23977 When actions are performed 'out of' emotion, they appear to be quite different [Goldie]
23973 Unlike moods, emotions have specific objects, though the difference is a matter of degree [Goldie]
23974 Emotional intentionality as belief and desire misses out the necessity of feelings [Goldie]
23972 A long lasting and evolving emotion is still seen as a single emotion, such as love [Goldie]
23980 It is best to see emotions holistically, as embedded in a person's life narrative [Goldie]
23982 If emotions are 'towards' things, they can't be bodily feelings, which lack aboutness [Goldie]
23983 We call emotions 'passions' because they are not as controlled as we would like [Goldie]
23984 An emotion needs episodes of feeling, but not continuously [Goldie]
23999 Emotional control is hard, but we are responsible for our emotions over long time periods [Goldie]
23994 Emotions are not easily changed, as new knowledge makes little difference, and akrasia is possible [Goldie]
23998 Emotional control is less concerned with emotional incidents, and more with emotional tendencies [Goldie]
23995 Akrasia can be either overruling our deliberation, or failing to deliberate [Goldie]
23993 Our capabilities did not all evolve during the hunter gathering period [Goldie]
23985 A basic emotion is the foundation of a hierarchy, such as anger for types of annoyance [Goldie]
23986 Early Chinese basic emotions: joy, anger, sadness, fear, love, disliking, and liking [Goldie]
23992 Some Aborigines have fifteen different words for types of fear [Goldie]
23991 Cross-cultural studies of facial expressions suggests seven basic emotions [Goldie]
24000 Justifying reasons say you were right; excusing reasons say your act was explicable [Goldie]
24001 Moods can focus as emotions, and emotions can blur into moods [Goldie]
24003 Character traits are both possession of and lack of dispositions [Goldie]
24002 We over-estimate the role of character traits when explaining behaviour [Goldie]
24004 Psychologists suggest we are muddled about traits, and maybe they should be abandoned [Goldie]
24005 We know other's emotions by explanation, contagion, empathy, imagination, or sympathy [Goldie]
24006 Empathy and imagining don't ensure sympathy, and sympathy doesn't need them [Goldie]