Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
acceptedVersion
Publication Date
3-2022
Abstract
We commonly appeal to emotions to explain human behaviour: we seek comfort out of grief, we threaten someone in anger and we hide in fear. According to the standard Humean analysis, intentional action is always explained with reference to a belief-desire pair. According to recent consensus, however, emotions have independent motivating force apart from beliefs and desires, and supplant them when explaining emotional action. In this paper I provide a systematic framework for thinking about the motivational structure of emotion and show how it is consistent with the Humean analysis. On this picture, emotions are not reducible to beliefs and desires, instead their primary motivational force comes from their role as modulators of desires—they control the strength of our occurrent desires. Emotions therefore motivate actions through the belief-desire system instead of overriding it.
Keywords
Emotion, desire, motivation, action, Motivational theory of action, Humeanism, belief-desire psychology, Humean theory of motivation, action tendency
Discipline
Philosophy | Philosophy of Mind
Research Areas
Psychology
Publication
Philosophical Studies
Volume
179
Issue
3
First Page
855
Last Page
878
ISSN
0031-8116
Identifier
10.1007/s11098-021-01697-y
Publisher
Springer
Citation
YIP, Brandon.(2022). Emotions as modulators of desire. Philosophical Studies, 179(3), 855-878.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/4134
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-021-01697-y