Making one out of two or three
RUB philosophers describe emotions as a separate kind of
mental state
Emotions arise through the integration of perceptual and
cognitive information
A life without feelings – unimaginable. Although emotions
are so important, philosophers are still discussing what they actually are.
Prof. Dr. Albert Newen and Dr. Luca Barlassina of the Institute of Philosophy
II at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum have drawn up a new theory. According to
this, emotions are not just special cases of perception or thought but a
separate kind of mental state which arises through the integration of feelings
of bodily processes and cognitive contents. They describe the model in the
journal “Philosophy and Phenomenological Research”.