This reply engages with five commentaries on my target article advancing the goal-directed theory (GDT). Stussi et al. expand the discussion by emphasizing epistemic goals, whereas Scarantino, Bonard, Pacherie, and Prinz resist my eliminativist conclusion to varying degrees by raising objections in the form of counterexamples (e.g., decisional paralysis, emotional recalcitrance, responding with vs. without emotional heath) and other puzzles (e.g., identity-based irrational emotions). By clarifying several misunderstandings about the GDT (e.g., about the revisability, automaticity, and complexity of goal-directed processes), I show how the theory can accommodate these objections, thereby further strengthening its viability.
BuabangE. K.KösterM.BoddezY.Van DesselP.De HouwerJ.MoorsA. (2023). A goal-directed account of action slips: The reliance on old contingencies. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 152(2), 496–508.https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0001280
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Feher da SilvaC.HareT. A. (2020). Humans primarily use model-based inference in the two-stage task. Nature Human Behaviour, 4, 1053–1066. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-0905-y
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FischerM.FiniC.BrassM.MoorsA. (2020). Early approach and avoidance tendencies can be goal-directed: Support from a transcranial magnetic stimulation study. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 20, 648–657. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-020-00793-6
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KösterM.FischerM.BossuytE.BuabangE. K.MoorsA. (2024). On the interplay between stimulus-driven and goal-directed processes in the decision to fight or flee. Collabra: Psychology, 10, 117347, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.117347
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McCauleyR. N.BechtelW. (2001). Explanatory pluralism and heuristic identity theory. Theory & Psychology, 11(6), 736–760. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959354301116002
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MillerK. J.LudvigE. A.PezzuloG.ShenhavA. (2018). In realigning models of habitual and goal-directed decision-making. In MorrisR.BornsteinA.ShenhavA. (Eds.), Goal-directed decision making: Computations and neural circuits (pp. 407–428). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-812098-9.00018-8
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MoorsA. (2022). Demystifying emotions: A typology of theories in psychology and philosophy. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781107588882
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MoorsA. (2025). How the goal-directed theory of emotions can account for valence and irrationality: Reply to objections. Acta Analytica. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12136-025-00638-2
MoorsA.FiniC.EveraertT.BardiL.BossuytE.KuppensP.BrassM. (2019). The role of stimulus-driven versus goal-directed processes in fight and flight tendencies measured with motor evoked potentials induced by transcranial magnetic stimulation. PLoS One, 14, e0217266, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0217266
ScarantinoA. (2014). The motivational theory of emotions. In D’ArmsJ.JacobsonD. (Eds.), Moral psychology and human agency: Philosophical essays on the science of ethics (pp. 156–185). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198717812.003.0008
22.
ScarantinoA. (2026). Moors’ eliminativism cross-examined: Why emotions are not goal-directed cycles. Emotion Review, 18(2), 80–84. https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073926142600
StussiY.GaudréM.SanderD. (2026). Demystifying the role of goal-directed processes in explaining the effects of emotion on information-seeking decisions. Emotion Review, 18(2), 76–79. https://doi.org/10.1177/17540739261422938
