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Single Idea 23981

[filed under theme 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 Ref

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]

The 17 ideas with the same theme [essential nature of an emotion]:

23951 Emotion is a modification of bodily energy, controlling our actions [Spinoza]
23950 Freud said passions are pressures of some flowing hydraulic quantity [Freud, by Solomon]
23981 Rage is inconceivable without bodily responses; so there are no disembodied emotions [James]
24013 An emotion and its object form a unity, so emotion is a mode of apprehension [Sartre]
24017 Emotion is one of our modes of understanding our Being-in-the-World [Sartre]
22235 Feelings are not unchanging, but have a history (especially if they are noble) [Foucault]
23952 I say bodily chemistry and its sensations have nothing to do with emotions [Solomon]
23954 Emotions are judgements about ourselves, and our place in the world [Solomon]
23960 Emotions are defined by their objects [Solomon]
23961 The heart of an emotion is its judgement of values and morality [Solomon]
23965 Emotions can be analysed under fifteen headings [Solomon]
2323 Emotions have both intentionality and qualia [Kim]
4906 Babies show highly emotional brain events, but may well be unaware of them [Carter,R]
23978 'Having an emotion' differs from 'being emotional' [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]