Emotions and Feelings

Abstract

The first part of the chapter discusses the nature of emotion and the new and old definitions of emotion. The reasons for working with the old or feeling theory are that it is still the familiar theory, that it provides a unifying factor for all the otherwise very different emotions, and it allows the separation of emotion, which is considered to be a signal to the person having the emotion, from facial expression, body language, and nonverbal communication, which are considered to be signals to other people, evolved to elicit helpful responses. Emotions are found to share a number of properties with belief, this is considered to be support for the feeling theory of belief. There is comment on the ineffable nature of emotion.The second part of the chapter deals with the nature of particular emotions, and the effects they have on the beliefs of people who are under their influence.

Keywords: Belief, Disgust, Pride, Remorse, Spirituality, Tenderness, Theories of emotion, Urge.

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