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Single Idea 23983
[filed under theme 18. Thought / A. Modes of Thought / 3. Emotions / g. Controlling emotions
]
Full Idea
In feeling towards things the imagination tends to 'run away with you', which is partly why the emotions are 'passions'; your thoughts and feelings are not always as much under your control as you would want them to be.
Gist of Idea
We call emotions 'passions' because they are not as controlled as we would like
Source
Peter Goldie (The Emotions [2000], 3 'Towards')
Book Ref
Goldie,Peter: 'The Emotions' [OUP 2002], p.58
A Reaction
This may have the chronology wrong. 'Passion' doesn't mean uncontrolled. I take it that 'passion' was an older word for 'emotion', and became attached to the older view of emotions as dangerous and corrupting.
The
34 ideas
from 'The Emotions'
23966
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The personal view can still be objective, so I call sciences 'impersonal', rather than objective
[Goldie]
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23968
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If reasons are seen impersonally (as just causal), then feelings are an irrelevant extra
[Goldie]
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23969
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We have feelings of which we are hardly aware towards things in the world
[Goldie]
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23967
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Some emotions are direct responses, and neither rational nor irrational
[Goldie]
|
23970
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Emotions are not avocado pears, with a rigid core and changeable surface
[Goldie]
|
23971
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Emotional thought is not rational, but it can be intelligible
[Goldie]
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23978
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'Having an emotion' differs from 'being emotional'
[Goldie]
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23979
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Emotional responses can reveal to us our values, which might otherwise remain hidden
[Goldie]
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23976
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If we have a 'feeling towards' an object, that gives the recognition a different content
[Goldie]
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23975
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Learning an evaluative property like 'dangerous' is also learning an emotion
[Goldie]
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23977
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When actions are performed 'out of' emotion, they appear to be quite different
[Goldie]
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23973
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Unlike moods, emotions have specific objects, though the difference is a matter of degree
[Goldie]
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23974
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Emotional intentionality as belief and desire misses out the necessity of feelings
[Goldie]
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23972
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A long lasting and evolving emotion is still seen as a single emotion, such as love
[Goldie]
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23980
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It is best to see emotions holistically, as embedded in a person's life narrative
[Goldie]
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23982
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If emotions are 'towards' things, they can't be bodily feelings, which lack aboutness
[Goldie]
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23983
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We call emotions 'passions' because they are not as controlled as we would like
[Goldie]
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23984
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An emotion needs episodes of feeling, but not continuously
[Goldie]
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23995
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Akrasia can be either overruling our deliberation, or failing to deliberate
[Goldie]
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23993
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Our capabilities did not all evolve during the hunter gathering period
[Goldie]
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23999
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Emotional control is hard, but we are responsible for our emotions over long time periods
[Goldie]
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23994
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Emotions are not easily changed, as new knowledge makes little difference, and akrasia is possible
[Goldie]
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23998
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Emotional control is less concerned with emotional incidents, and more with emotional tendencies
[Goldie]
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23991
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Cross-cultural studies of facial expressions suggests seven basic emotions
[Goldie]
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23992
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Some Aborigines have fifteen different words for types of fear
[Goldie]
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23986
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Early Chinese basic emotions: joy, anger, sadness, fear, love, disliking, and liking
[Goldie]
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23985
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A basic emotion is the foundation of a hierarchy, such as anger for types of annoyance
[Goldie]
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24000
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Justifying reasons say you were right; excusing reasons say your act was explicable
[Goldie]
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24001
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Moods can focus as emotions, and emotions can blur into moods
[Goldie]
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24003
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Character traits are both possession of and lack of dispositions
[Goldie]
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24002
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We over-estimate the role of character traits when explaining behaviour
[Goldie]
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24004
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Psychologists suggest we are muddled about traits, and maybe they should be abandoned
[Goldie]
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24005
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We know other's emotions by explanation, contagion, empathy, imagination, or sympathy
[Goldie]
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24006
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Empathy and imagining don't ensure sympathy, and sympathy doesn't need them
[Goldie]
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