Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Müller proposes a position-taking theory to account for the manifest image of emotional feelings as “feelings towards”. He reduces the process of position-taking to goal-based construal, which is akin to the stimulus-goal comparison process central in appraisal theories. Although this reduction can account for the heat of emotional feelings and the intuition that non-linguistic organisms can also have feelings, it may fail to keep the position-taking aspect on board. Moreover, the image of emotional feelings as active position-takings may itself be questioned and replaced with a passive image. I end by acknowledging that a passive image is still compatible with an active underlying mechanism as is the case in appraisal theories but even more so in the goal-directed theory.

Keywords

feelings position-taking appraisal goal congruence goal-directed

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Colombetti

( 2009). From affect programs to dynamical discrete emotions. Philosophical Psychology, 22( 4), 407– 425. doi:10.1080/09515080903153600

Deonna

Teroni

( 2012). The emotions: A philosophical introduction. Routledge.

Ellsworth

P. C.

Scherer

K. R.

( 2003). Appraisal processes in emotion. In Davidson

Scherer

K. R.

Goldsmith

H. H.

(Eds.), Handbook of affective sciences (pp. 572– 595). Oxford University Press.

Fazio

R. H.

( 2007). Attitudes as object–evaluation associations of varying strength. Social Cognition, 25( 5), 603– 637. doi:10.1521/soco.2007.25.5.603

Greenwald

A. G.

Banaji

M. R.

Rudman

L. A.

Farnham

S. D.

Nosek

B. A.

Mellott

D. S.

( 2002). A unified theory of implicit attitudes, stereotypes, self-esteem, and self-concept. Psychological Review, 109( 1), 3– 25. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.109.1.3

Griffiths

P. E.

( 2004). Towards a Machiavellian theory of emotional appraisal. In Cruse

Evans

(Eds.), Emotion, evolution and rationality (pp. 89– 105). Oxford University Press.

Moors

( 2010). Automatic constructive appraisal as a candidate cause of emotion. Emotion Review, 2( 2), 139– 156. doi:10.1177/1754073909351755

Moors

( 2013). On the causal role of appraisal in emotion. Emotion Review, 5( 2), 132– 140. doi:10.1177/1754073912463601

Moors

( 2017). Integration of two skeptical emotion theories: Dimensional appraisal theory and Russell's psychological construction theory. Psychological Inquiry, 28( 1), 1– 19. doi:10.1080/1047840X.2017.1235900

10.

Moors

( 2022). Demystifying emotions: A typology of theories in psychology and philosophy. Cambridge University Press.

11.

Moors

Ellsworth

Scherer

K. R.

Frijda

N. H.

( 2013). Appraisal theories of emotion: State of the art and future development. Emotion Review, 5( 2), 119– 124. doi:10.1177/1754073912468165

12.

Müller

J. M.

( 2018). Emotion as position-taking. Philosophia, 46( 3), 525– 540. doi:10.1007/s11406-017-9905-1

13.

Müller

J. M.

( 2019). The world-directedness of emotional feeling: On affect and intentionality. Springer Nature.

14.

Mulligan

( 2010). Emotions and values. In Goldie

(Ed.), Oxford Handbook of the philosophy of emotion (pp. 475– 500). Oxford University Press.

15.

Nussbaum

M. C.

( 2001). Upheavals of thought: The intelligence of emotions. Cambridge University Press.

16.

Prinz

J. J.

( 2004). Gut reactions: A perceptual theory of emotion. Oxford University Press.

17.

Reisenzein

( 2012). What is an Emotion? In Paglieri

Tummolini

Falcone

Miceli

(Eds.), The goals of cognition: Essays in honor of Cristiano Castelfranchi. College Publications.

18.

Shargel

Prinz

( 2018). An enactivist theory of emotional content. In Naar

Teroni

(Eds.), The ontology of emotions (pp. 110– 129). Cambridge University Press.

19.

Tappolet

( 2016). Emotions, values, and agency. Oxford University Press.

20.

Wilson

T. D.

Hodges

S. D.

( 1992). Attitudes as temporary constructions. In L. L. Martin & A. Tesser (Eds.), The construction of social judgments (pp. 37– 65). Erlbaum.

Commentary: Connecting Müller's Philosophical Position-Taking Theory of Emotional Feelings to Mechanistic Emotion Theories in Psychology

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References