Abstract
In a remarkable passage of his Principles of Psychology William James writes:
My theory [...] is that bodily changes follow directly the perception of the exciting fact, and that our feeling of the same changes as they occur IS the emotion. Common-sense says, we lose our fortune, are sorry and weep; we meet a bear, are frightened and run; we are insulted by a rival, are angry and strike. The hypothesis here to be defended says that this order of sequence is incorrect, that the one mental state is not immediately induced by the other, that the bodily manifestations must first be interposed between, and that the more rational statement is that we feel sorry because we cry, angry because we strike, afraid because we tremble, and not that we cry, strike, or tremble because we are sorry, angry, or fearful, as the case may be.1
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Notes
W. James, The Principles of Psychology, Volume Two, H. Holt, New York 1890, p. 499.
Mid.,pp. 451 f.
L. Wittgenstein, The Blue and Brown Books, ed. and with a Preface by R. Rhees, B. Blackwell, Oxford 1958, p. 103.
L. Wittgenstein, Bemerkungen über die Philosophie der Psychologie. Remarks on the Philosophy of Psychology, Volume I (RPP I), ed. by G. E. M. Anscombe G. H. von Wright. Trans. by G. E. M. Anscombe, B. Blackwell, Oxford 1980, § 451.
L. Wittgenstein, Bemerkungen über die Philosophie der Psychologie. Remarks on the Philosophy of Psychology, Volume II (RPP II), ed. by G. H. von Wright H. Nyman. Trans. by C. G. Luckhardt M. A. E. Aue, B. Blackwell, Oxford 1980, § 321.
Philosophische Untersuchungen. Philosophical Investigations (PI), ed. by G. E. M. Anscombe R. Rhees. Trans. by G. E. M. Anscombe, B. Blackwell, Oxford 1953.
This paper is an earlier version of Chapter 8 of J. Schulte, Experience and Expression: Wittgenstein’s Philosophy of Psychology, Claredon Press, Oxford 1993.
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Schulte, J. (1995). Emotion: Remarks on Wittgenstein and William James. In: Egidi, R. (eds) Wittgenstein: Mind and Language. Synthese Library, vol 245. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-3691-6_19
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