Wiegman, Isaac (2021) What Basic Emotions Really Are: Modularity, Motivation, and Behavioral Variability. [Preprint]

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Abstract

While there is ongoing debate about the existence of basic emotions and about their status as natural kinds, these debates usually carry on under the assumption that basic emotions are modular and therefore cannot account for behavioral variability in emotional situations. Moreover, both sides of the debate have assumed that these putative features of basic emotions distinguish them as products of evolution rather than products of culture and experience. I argue that these assumptions are unwarranted, that there is empirical evidence against them, and that evolutionary theory itself should not lead us to expect that behavioral invariability and modularity mark the distinction between evolved emotions and higher cognitive emotions. I further suggest that claims about behavioral invariability and modularity have functioned as defeasible conjectures aimed at helping test basic emotion theory. Finally, I draw out the implications of these claims for debates about the existence of basic emotions in humans.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Wiegman, Isaac isaac.wiegman.phd@gmail.com 0000-0001-6060-2554
Additional Information:	to appear in Biology and Philosophy
Keywords:	basic emotions; natural kinds; modularity; behavioral variability; cognitivism; evolutionary psychology
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Psychology > Evolutionary Psychology General Issues > Natural Kinds Specific Sciences > Psychology
Depositing User:	Dr. Isaac Wiegman
Date Deposited:	31 Aug 2021 04:07
Last Modified:	31 Aug 2021 04:07
Item ID:	19518
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Psychology > Evolutionary Psychology General Issues > Natural Kinds Specific Sciences > Psychology
Date:	2021
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/19518

Available Versions of this Item

• What Basic Emotions Really Are: Encapsulated or Integrated? (deposited 19 Oct 2016 22:57)
  • What Basic Emotions Really Are: Encapsulated or Integrated? (deposited 21 Oct 2016 15:22)
    • What Basic Emotions Really Are: Modularity, Motivation, and Behavioral Variability. (deposited 31 Aug 2021 04:07) [Currently Displayed]

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