Emotions

"The Emotions" emphasizes the centrality of emotional intentionality as determining the role of emotions in the economy of mind. Standard theories are presented and assessed with respect to the problem of emotional intentionality. The prevailing cognitive or belief-oriented view of representation and rationality is challenged, and an account of desire as a mode of mental representation with a distinctive function and conditions of rationality is introduced. An original theory of emotions as semantically interrelated structures of beliefs and desires is developed and defended. Also, within the framework provided by the theory, novel solutions are presented to problems about emotional expression and motivation, emotional affectivity, activity and passivity, and positive and negative emotions.