Are Emotions Natural Kinds

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Are Emotions Natural Kinds?: Barrett, L.F. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 1, 28-58 (2006).

Abstract

Laypeople and scientists alike believe that they know anger, or sadness, or fear, when they see it. These emotions and a few others are presumed to have specific causal mechanisms in the brain and properties that are observable (on the face, in the voice, in the body, or in experience) – that is, they are assumed to be natural kinds. If a given emotion is a natural kind and can be identified objectively, then it is possible to make discoveries about emotion. Indeed, the scientific study of emotion is founded on this assumption. In this article, I review the accumulating empirical evidence that is inconsistent with the view that there are kinds of emotion with boundaries that are carved in nature. I then consider what moving beyond a natural-kind view might mean for the scientific understanding of emotion.

Responses

 Date"Date" is a type and predefined property provided by Semantic MediaWiki to represent date values.AuthorLead-in
Emotion is Natural but Categories are Not20 September 2006Nancy AlvaradoBarrett argues against the construct of emotion by conflating the basic-emotions perspective in neural physiology with a type of category discussed in reference philosophy...
Laypeople and scientists alike believe thaLaypeople and scientists alike believe that they know anger, or sadness, or fear, when they see it. These emotions and a few others are presumed to have specific causal mechanisms in the brain and properties that are observable (on the face, in the voice, in the body, or in experience) – that is, they are assumed to be natural kinds. If a given emotion is a natural kind and can be identified objectively, then it is possible to make discoveries about emotion. Indeed, the scientific study of emotion is founded on this assumption. In this article, I review the accumulating empirical evidence that is inconsistent with the view that there are kinds of emotion with boundaries that are carved in nature. I then consider what moving beyond a natural-kind view might mean for the scientific understanding of emotion.r the scientific understanding of emotion. +
Barrett 2006 +
Perspectives on Psychological Science, 1, 28-58 +
2006-Barrett +
Are Emotions Natural Kinds? +
2006 +