Imagining Emotion

Psychological research regarding philosophical treatments of emotion. Can look at Elaine Fox (2008) “Emotion Science.” Discusses what scientists have learned about the emotions. Copp (2007) talks about morality in terms of emotions, beliefs and rules. Part 1:

1. All emotion involves imagination [1].
2. Imagination involves representing something to ourselves [8].
3. Because of imagination, we can “see” anything.
4. Our emotions inspire us to search for actions that will address particular problems which we face.
5. But we must make sure to distinguish between emotion and mood.
6. e.g., emotions have objects whereas moods do not.
7. Our emotions put pressures on our thoughts, desires, conjectures, fantasies, and perceptions. This pressure in turn is interpreted as a feeling.
8. There are different categories of emotion understood as a four way distinction between emotion and mood.
9. A way to understand this, is by understanding our emotions as a two-way cross-cutting distinction between passions and sentiments and another between moods and emotions [48].
   1. mood and passion
   2. mood and sentiment
   3. emotion and passion
   4. emotion and sentiment