Overview
Defends the much-disputed view that emotions are what David Hume referred to as ‘original existences’
Advances the idea that emotions serve as the categorical bases for our behavioral dispositions, including our desires
Relates the claims made in the book to our understanding of mental illness and the treatment of emotional disorders
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Table of contents (8 chapters)
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Front Matter
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On Emotion
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Front Matter
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On Emotion and Motivation
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Front Matter
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Emotion and the Self
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
This book defends the much-disputed view that emotions are what Hume referred to as ‘original existences’: feeling states that have no intentional or representational properties of their own. In doing so, the book serves as a valuable counterbalance to the now mainstream view that emotions are representational mental states. Beginning with a defence of a feeling theory of emotion, Whiting opens up a whole new way of thinking about the role and centrality of emotion in our lives, showing how emotion is key to a proper understanding of human motivation and the self. Whiting establishes that emotions as types of bodily feelings serve as the categorical bases for our behavioural dispositions, including those associated with moral thought, virtue, and vice.
The book concludes by advancing the idea that emotions make up our intrinsic nature - the characterisation of what we are like in and of ourselves, when considered apart from how we are disposed to behave. The conclusion additionally draws out the implications of the claims made throughout the book in relation to our understanding of mental illness and the treatment of emotional disorders.
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Demian Whiting is a Senior Lecturer based in Hull York Medical School and the Department of Philosophy at the University of Hull, UK. His research interests include philosophy of emotion, moral psychology, phenomenal consciousness, and various issues in applied ethics.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Emotions as Original Existences
Book Subtitle: A Theory of Emotion, Motivation and the Self
Authors: Demian Whiting
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54682-3
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Religion and Philosophy, Philosophy and Religion (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-54681-6Published: 26 September 2020
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-54684-7Published: 27 September 2021
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-54682-3Published: 25 September 2020
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XI, 233
Topics: Philosophy of Mind, Ethics, Self and Identity