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Single Idea 23975

[filed under theme 18. Thought / A. Modes of Thought / 3. Emotions / g. Controlling emotions ]

Full Idea

The process of teaching a child how to identify things which are dangerous is typically one and the same process as teaching that child when fear is merited. ...'Dangerous' is an evaluative property, meriting a certain sort of response.

Gist of Idea

Learning an evaluative property like 'dangerous' is also learning an emotion

Source

Peter Goldie (The Emotions [2000], 2 'Education')

Book Ref

Goldie,Peter: 'The Emotions' [OUP 2002], p.30


A Reaction

I like this, because it shows the unity between our inner life and our experience of the external world. Concepts and emotions are usually responses, rather than private initiatives.


The 34 ideas from Peter Goldie

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