Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T09:02:41.509Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Sartre and James on the Role of the Body in Emotion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 April 2010

Bruce Baugh
Bruce Baugh
Affiliation:
Victoria University, University of Toronto
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Sartre begins the first chapter of his monograph, Sketch for a Theory of the Emotions with a critique of William James' “peripheric theory” of the emotions. According to Sartre, James claims that emotions are “nothing but the consciousness of physiological manifestations” (p. 33), the reflection in consciousness of changes occuring in the body. Sartre attacks this theory as being unable to account for the meaningful and purposive nature of emotions. Sartre's own view is that emotions are the substitution of a magical or symbolic way of relating to the world for problem-solving behaviour, and occur when problem-solving behaviour is perceived to be “impossible” for one reason or another.

Type
Articles
Information
Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review / Revue canadienne de philosophie , Volume 29 , Issue 3 , Summer 1990 , pp. 357 - 374
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Philosophical Association 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Clarke, Stanley G. 1986 “Emotions: Rationality Without Cognitivism.” Dialogue, 25, 4 (Winter): 663–674.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dumas, Georges. 1923 Traité de psychologie Paris: Alcan.Google Scholar
Ekman, Paul. 1980 “Biological and Cultural Contributions to Body and Facial Movement in the Expression of Emotions.” In Explaining Emotions. Edited by Rorty, A. O.. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Ekman, P., Friesen, W. V. and Ellsworth, P.. 1972 Emotion in the Human Face. New York: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Fell, Joseph P. 1965 Emotion in the Thought of Jean-Paul Sartre. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Greenspan, Patricia 1980 “A Case of Mixed Feelings: Ambivalence and the Logic of Emotion.” In Explaining Emotions. Edited by Rorty, A. O.. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Greenspan, Patricia 1981 “Emotions as Evaluations.” Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 62, 2 (April): 158–169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guillaume, Paul 1937 Psychologie de la forme. Bibliothèque de Philosophie Scientifique. Paris: Flammarion.Google Scholar
James, William 1884 “What is an Emotion?” Mind, 9: 188–205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
James, William 1950 Principles of Psychology. 1884. Rpt. New York: Dover.Google Scholar
Lyons, William 1980 Emotion. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maclean, Paul 1975 “Sensory and Perceptive Factors in Emotional Functions of the Triune Brain.” In Emotions — Their Parameters and Measurement. Edited by Levi, L.. New York: Raven Press. Also in Explaining Emotions, p. 9–36. Edited by A. O. Rorty. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980.Google Scholar
Malatesta, C. and Izard, C. 1984 “Conceptualizing Emotional Development in Adults.” In Emotion in Adult Development. Edited by Malatesta, C. and Izard, C.. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Rorty, A. O., ed. 1980 Explaining Emotions. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Sartre, Jean-Paul 1940 L'Imaginaire. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Sartre, Jean-Paul 1965 Esquisse d'une théorie des émotions. 2nd ed. L'esprit et la main. Paris: Hermann.Google Scholar
Sartre, Jean-Paul 1966 Being and Nothingness. Translated by Barnes, Hazel. New York: Washington Square Press.Google Scholar
Sartre, Jean-Paul 1971 Sketch for a Theory of the Emotions. Translated by Mairet, Philip. London: Methuen.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schachter, S. and Singer, J. E. 1962 “Cognitive, Social and Physiological Determinants of Emotional States.” Psychological Review, 69, 5 (September): 379–399.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scherer, K. R. and Ekman, P., eds. 1984 Approaches to Emotion. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Solomon, Robert C. 1976 The Passions. New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Solomon, Robert C. 1980 “Emotions and Choice.” In Explaining Emotions. Edited by Rorty, A. O.. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Solomon, Robert C. 1981 “Sartre on the Emotions.” In The Philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre. Edited by P. A., Schilpp. Lasalle, IL: Open Court.Google Scholar
Steiner, J. E. 1974 “Innate Discriminative Human Facial Expressions to Taste and Smell Discrimination.” Annals of the New York Academy of Science, 237 (September): 229–233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zajonc, R. B. 1980 “Feeling and Thinking: Preferences Need No Inferences.” American Psychologist, 35, 2 (February): 151–175.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zajonc, R. B. 1984 “On the Primacy of Affect.” In Approaches to Emotion. Edited by Scherer, K. R. and Ekman, P.. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar