Beyond good and bad: Reflexive imperativism, not evaluativism, explains valence
Thought: A Journal of Philosophy 9 (4):274-284 (2020)
Abstract
Evaluativism (Carruthers 2018) and reflexive imperativism (Barlassina and Hayward 2019) agree that valence—the (un)pleasantness of experiences—is a natural kind shared across all affective states. But they disagree about what valence is. For evaluativism, an experience is pleasant/unpleasant in virtue of representing its worldly object as good/bad; for reflexive imperativism, an experience is pleasant/unpleasant in virtue of commanding its subject to get more/less of itself. I argue that reflexive imperativism is superior to evaluativism according to Carruthers’s own standards. He maintains that a theory of valence should account for its phenomenology and role in imagination-based decision-making. I show that it is reflexive imperativism, rather than evaluativism, that fits this explanatory bill.
Categories
(categorize this paper)
DOI
PhilPapers/Archive ID
BARBGA-2
Upload history
Added to PP index
2020-10-15
Total views
133 ( #35,066 of 58,466 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
99 ( #6,313 of 58,466 )
2020-10-15
Total views
133 ( #35,066 of 58,466 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
99 ( #6,313 of 58,466 )
How can I increase my downloads?
Downloads since first upload
This graph includes both downloads from PhilArchive and clicks on external links on PhilPapers.