Reprinted in Aristotle's Ethics, edited by T. Irwin, Garland Press, 1995; revised in Essays on Aristotle's Rhetoric, edited by A. Rorty, University of California Press, 1996.

ONE question asked about the relationship between feelings and emotion is whether feelings are a feature necessary to constitute emotion. Answers vary from James's assertion that they are so central as to be emotion, to Bedford's and Solomon's insistence that they are irrelevant to emotion. More moderate answers, however, have emerged, views in which feelings have a place with regard to emotion--at least some of the time. Assuming that feelings do have some status with regard to emotion, a further question (...) is to be asked. When feelings are a feature relevant to emotion, what is their status with regard to the features of the complex that are said to be emotion? (shrink)

While philosophical speculation into the nature and value of emotions is at least as old as the Pre-Socratics, William James' "What is an emotion?" reinvigorated interest in the question. Coming to grips with James' proposals, particularly in the light of subsequent concerns for the difficulties inherent in a so-called private language, led philosophers away from analyses centred on feelings to ones centred on thoughts. Analyzing the emotions in this way involves returning to a vision of the emotions that traces its (...) ancestry back to the Stoics, but has proven to be enormously insightful and influential again in modern times. The papers collected here centre on James' question and often respond explicitly to one another. Together, they provide a sense of what a cognitive view of the emotions maintains, what it denies, and how it has arisen. The connection provides wide-ranging coverage of the point of dispute amongst those impressed by the cognitive approach, and gives a good sense too of the tremendous explanatory power of this view. (shrink)

This paper considers an allegation by M. Stocker and E. Hegeman that Aristotle’s account of anger yields a narcissistic passion bedevilled by illusions of self-sufficiency. The paper argues on behalf of Aristotle’s valuing of anger within a virtuous and flourishing life, showing that and why Aristotle’s account is neither narcissistic nor involves illusions of self-sufficiency. In so arguing a deeper appreciation of Aristotle’s understanding of a self-sufficient life is reached, as are some interesting contrasts between Aristotle's understanding of anger, its (...) connections to value and our own understanding of these matters. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: The Rhetoric's Conception of the Passions Persuasion and the Passions Rousing the Passions Tactics The Legitimacy of the Passions Notes Bibliography.

This paper was originally presented at a Conference held at the University of Texas at Austin, part of a celebration of the career of Doug Browning.

When characterizing ta pathē in the Eudemian Ethics Aristotle claims that they are usually accompanied by perceptual pleasure or pain. He says: λέγω δ πάθη μν τ τοιατα, θυμν όβον αδ πιθυμίαν, λως ος πεται ώς π τ πολ ασθητικ ήδον ἢ λύπη καθ' ατά. By affections I mean such things as anger, fear, shame, desire – in general anything which, as such, gives rise usually to perceptual pleasure and pain.

When characterizing ta pathē in the Eudemian Ethics Aristotle claims that they are usually accompanied by perceptual pleasure or pain. He says: λέγω δ πάθη μν τ τοιατα, θυμν όβον αδ πιθυμίαν, λως ος πεται ώς π τ πολ ασθητικ ήδον ἢ λύπη καθ' ατά. By affections I mean such things as anger, fear, shame, desire – in general anything which, as such, gives rise usually to perceptual pleasure and pain.

The present study considers whether poetry is capable of providing insight that can illuminate our lives, doing so from the perspective of Aristotle’s understanding of tragedy, fear, and the emotions more generally. It argues that and explains how fear as understood by Aristotle can foster insight in a tragedy’s audience, depicts the nature and the bases for such insight, and suggests several ways in which insight that fear can bring to tragedy can be especially or particularly illuminating. The argument for (...) these conclusions proceeds by considering Aristotle’s understanding of fear, noting particularly its epistemological powers. It then turns to fear’s realization in response to tragedy, arguing that and explaining how tragedy’s form and a number of its distinctive features can shape fear in ways that more readily foster insight than is to be found in fear felt in more ordinary circumstances. The conclusion reached is that on Aristotle’s understanding fear in response to tragedy can prove particularly illuminating, and can illuminate our ordinary lives. (shrink)

This book views Green's philosophical opus through his public life and political commitments. It demonstrates how his main ethical and political conceptions -- his idea of 'self realisation' and his theory of individuality within community -- were informed by evangelical theology, popular Protestantism and an idea of the English national consciousness as formed by religious conflict. While the significance of Kant and Hegel is acknowledged, it is argued that 'indigenous' qualities of Green's teachings resonated with Victorian Liberal values.

The importance of the gesture and the glance in oral communication face-to-face are undeniable, however, the communication skills of children with Specific Language Impairment has been measured, primarily preferring a description of its language orally or has been considered the verbal and non-verbal in an isolated manner. Given this, the objective of this study was to describe and interpret the use of the word, gesture and glances in narrative discourse in children SLI from a multimodal perspective, that allows to observe (...) not only the use of these resources, but also their integration. With a retelling task with support of visual images, oral productions of six Chilean children between 5 years and 5 years 11 months were analyzed. The findings indicate that children construct narratives from a combination of verbal and non-verbal resources and their number increases when the character’s actions are described. Also, it was possible to account for two instances of multisemiotic meaning construction through an assembly between different elements, in coordination or integration. These results corroborate previous findings that show that these children replace some of their problems with oral language through gestures and looks, which allow them to increase the communicability of their stories. (shrink)

This essay explores ways in which cultures at different levels and in different historical circumstances employ different modes of discourse to deal with conflict and with ways to resolve it. The study is based on ethnographic observations of the Tsimshian myth of Asdiwal, collected by Boas and made famous by Lévi-Strauss; the story of Sakuntala, from a Sanskrit epic, the Mahabharata; and Remarque's war novel of 1929, All Quiet on the Western Front. In the first case, no resolution of the (...) conflicts comprising the narrative is required, because in mythical thinking adversaries are united in the strife that divides them. In the second example, the conflict is between the contested realities, colliding ideologies, and divergent social practices of the priestly and warrior castes; the discourse of the epic illuminates the differences in explicit detail in order to permit negotiation. The final instance is of a modern European narrative in which the specific causes and consequences of the Great War are obscure to the soldiers fighting in it. It is random chance, rather than the negotiation or transcendence of difference, that is thought, in this mode, to determine who lives and dies. The essay concludes with speculation about why this third and present mode has been less successful than the other two in dealing with conflict and its resolution. (shrink)

This study of T.H. Green views his philosophical opus through his public life and political commitments, and it uses biography as a lens through which to examine Victorian political culture and its moral climate. The book deals with the political and religious history of Victorian Britain in examining the basis of Green's Liberal partisanship. It demonstrates how his main ethical and political conceptions—his idea of "self-realisation" and his theory of individuality within community—were informed by evangelical theology, popular Protestantism and an (...) idea of the English national consciousness as formed by religious conflict. While the significance of Kantian and Hegelian elements in Green’s thought is acknowledged, it is argued that “indigenous” qualities of Green’s teachings resonated with values shared alike by elite and rank-and-file Liberals during the mid and late Victorian era. In examining Green’s beliefs about the historical evolution of English liberty, his championing of Nonconformity and Nonconformist causes and his approval of religious bases of community, this study analyzes the ripening of a Greenian moment and traces Green’s influence on Liberal, quasi-socialist and Conservative social reform down to the 1920s. The lasting impact of Green’s teachings on British and Western political philosophy, apparent in the current vogue for communitarianism in liberal theory, indicates limitations of the “secularization thesis” still tacitly accepted by historians of Western political thought. (shrink)

In Return to Reason, Stephen Toulmin argues that the potential for reason to improve our lives has been hampered by a serious imbalance in our pursuit of ...

In this article, from the 2009 Oxford University Press collection Epistemic Value, I criticize existing accounts of epistemic normativity by Alston, Goldman, and Sosa, and then offer a new view.

In this paper, Leighton Thomson provides the reader with an overview of early 16th century English history and he explores the achievements and reversals of the period in terms of the epoch of discovery, the Renaissance humanists and the first stirrings of the Reformation. A contrast is drawn between Thomas More and his contemporary reformers, particularly William Tyndale and Martin Luther.