The Unavoidable Intentionality of Affect: The History of Emotions and the Neurosciences of the Present Day
Date
2020-07-01
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Repository Usage Stats
views
downloads
Citation Stats
Attention Stats
Abstract
© The Author(s) 2020. The “problem of emotions,” that is, that many of them are both meaningful and corporeal, has yet to be resolved. Western thinkers, from Augustine to Descartes to Zajonc, have handled this problem by employing various forms of mind–body dualism. Some psychologists and neuroscientists since the 1970s have avoided it by talking about cognitive and emotional “processing,” using a terminology borrowed from computer science that nullifies the meaningful or intentional character of both thought and emotion. Outside the Western-influenced contexts, emotion and thought are not seen as distinct kinds of things. Here a solution of sorts is proposed by thinking of emotional expression as a dynamic activity that declares and stirs emotions at the same time. As such, its dynamism may help historians to understand the dramatic changes and trends they investigate.
Type
Department
Description
Provenance
Subjects
Citation
Permalink
Published Version (Please cite this version)
Publication Info
Reddy, WM (2020). The Unavoidable Intentionality of Affect: The History of Emotions and the Neurosciences of the Present Day. Emotion Review, 12(3). pp. 168–178. 10.1177/1754073920930781 Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/22364.
This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
Collections
Scholars@Duke
William M. Reddy
Overall interest: The history of emotions principally but not exclusively in the European past, with a more recent focus on the complex and curious history of the relation between reason and emotion.
Book manuscript under submission: "The Road to Holy War: Divine Honor and Human Anxieties in France, 1547-1563"
Recent publications: "Dualism and Emotion in the Letters of Elisabeth of Bohemia and René Descartes, 1643-1649," Emotions: History, Culture, Society, prepublication online at Brill.com, publication forthcoming December 2025.
"To Fly the Plane: Language Games, Historical Narratives, and Emotions," History and Theory 62 / 1 (2023):30-61. Open Access at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/hith.12289
Most recent book-- The Making of Romantic Love: Longing and Sexuality in Europe, South Asia, and Japan, 900-1200 CE (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012). Awarded the Pinkney Prize for best book in French History, 2012, by the Society for French Historical Studies.
Personal web page: http://people.duke.edu/~wmr/
Unless otherwise indicated, scholarly articles published by Duke faculty members are made available here with a CC-BY-NC (Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial) license, as enabled by the Duke Open Access Policy. If you wish to use the materials in ways not already permitted under CC-BY-NC, please consult the copyright owner. Other materials are made available here through the author’s grant of a non-exclusive license to make their work openly accessible.