Knowing Emotions: Truthfulness and Recognition in Affective Experience

249 Pages·2018·9.65 MB·English

by  Rick Anthony Furtak

KNOWING EMOTIONS

KNOWING EMOTIONS
Truthfulness and Recognition
in Affective Experience
Rick Anthony Furtak
1
3
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© Oxford University Press 2018
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Furtak, Rick Anthony, author.
Title: Knowing emotions : truthfulness and recognition in affective
experience / Rick Anthony Furtak.
Description: New York, NY : Oxford University Press,
United States of America, [2018] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017030834 (print) | LCCN 2017033766 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780190492052 (updf) | ISBN 9780190492069 (online course) |
ISBN 9780190862077 (epub) | ISBN 9780190492045 (cloth : acid-free paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Emotions. | Perception. | Cognition.
Classification: LCC BF723.E6 (ebook) | LCC BF723.E6 F87 2018 (print) |
DDC 152.4–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017030834
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America
This book is dedicated
to my friends
and family members
and, especially,
to Maria
(with love)

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments  ix
PART I
THE RATIONAL AND THE PASSIONATE
1. The Intelligence of Emotions: Differing Schools
of Thought  3
2. What the Empirical Evidence Suggests  23
PART II
ON REASONABLE FEELINGS AND EMBODIED
COGNITION 
3. Feeling Apprehensive  51
4. Emotions as Felt Recognitions  75
Contents
PART III
THE REASONS OF THE HEART 
5. On the Emotional A Priori  103
6. Love’s Knowledge; or, The Significance of What
We Care About  123
7. Attunement and Perspectival Truth  159
Bibliography  199
Index  225
viii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
These acknowledgments cannot possibly do justice to the many
persons upon whom I have depended while writing this book. (One
way to have written these pages would have been simply to thank
all of the medical doctors who have kept me alive, and to whom
I am grateful.) I will inevitably fail to thank adequately those whom
I mention, and to say thanks to everyone who deserves this. One
must, I’m afraid, be patient and forgiving in order to remain among
the friends whom I decided are the most appropriate dedicatees of
this text.
For some time, I was planning to have two women whom
I admire share the dedication; although I changed my mind about
this late in the day, the thought is still worth noting. M. C. N. and
K. A. N. have influenced my life and thought profoundly over the
past two decades. I thank them both.
This book has been shaped by unusual circumstances, and the
writing of these acknowledgments is no exception. When I look
back at the acknowledgments page in my first book, I am astonished
by the reminder of how many people in my intellectual community