Affective Representation and Affective Attitudes
Synthese:1-28 (2019)
Abstract
Many philosophers have understood the representational dimension of affective states along the model of sense-perceptual experiences, even claiming the relevant affective experiences are perceptual experiences. This paper argues affective experiences involve a kind of personal level affective representation disanalogous from the representational character of perceptual experiences. The positive thesis is that affective representation is a non-transparent, non-sensory form of evaluative representation, whereby a felt valenced attitude represents the object of the experience as minimally good or bad, and one experiences that evaluative standing as having the power to causally motivate the relevant attitude. I show this view can make sense of distinctive features of affective experiences, such as their valence and connection to value in a way which moves beyond current evaluativist views of affect.
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Archival date: 2019-06-12
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2019-06-12
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2019-06-12
Total views
161 ( #29,357 of 55,894 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
33 ( #23,746 of 55,894 )
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