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What is an Emotion?
Author(s): William James
Source: Mind, Vol. 9, No. 34 (Apr., 1884), pp. 188-205
Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the Mind Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2246769
Accessed: 10-12-2015 03:59 UTC
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II.-WHAT
IS AN EMOTION?
By ProfessorWILLIAM
JAMES.
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WHAT IS AN EMOTION ?
189
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190
WILLIAM
JAMES:
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WHAT IS AN EMOTION ?
191
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192
WILLIAM
JAMES:
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WHAT IS AN EMOTION
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194
rILLIAM JAMES:
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WHAT IS AN EMOTION ?
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196
WILLIAM JAMES:
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WHAT IS AN EMOTION?
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198
WILLIAM JAMES:
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WHAT- IS AN EMOTION?
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200
WILLIAM
JAMES:
meanyfeeling,this
afford
frommeandcannolonger
self,is as itwereseparated
seemsto dependupon a void whichI feel in thefrontof my
impossibility
overthewholesurface
of
ofthesensibility
head,and tobeduetothediminution
mybody,
forit seemsto me thatI neveractuallyreachtheobjectswhichI
touch. .
on myskin,but
Ifeel well enoughthechangesof temperature
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WHAT IS AN EMOTION ?
201
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202
WILLIAM JAMES:
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WHAT IS AN EMOTION ?
203
and there is the emotional flushand thrillconsequent thereupon. And these are two things,not one. In the former
of them it is that experts and masters are at home. The
latter accompanimentsare bodilycommotionsthat theymay
hardlyfeel,but that may be experiencedin their fulness by
Cretins and Philistines in whom the critical judgment
is at its lowest ebb. The "marvels" of Science, about
which so much edifyingpopular literature is written,are
apt to be " caviare" to the men in the laboratories. Cognition and emotion are parted even in this last retreat,-who
shall say that their antagonism may not just be one phase
of the world-old struggle known as that between the spirit
and the flesh?-a strugglein which it seems prettycertain
that neither party will definitivelydrive the other off the
field.
the physiologyof the
To returnnow to our starting-point,
brain. If we suppose its cortexto contain centres for the
perception of changes in each special sense-organ,in each
portion of the skin, in each muscle, each joint, and each
viscus, and to contain absolutelynothing else, we still have
a scheme perfectlycapable of representingthe process of the
emotions. An object falls on a sense-organ and is apperceived by the appropriate cortical centre; or else the latter,
excited in some otherway, gives rise to an idea of the same
object. Quick as a flash, the reflex currents pass down
through their pre-ordainedchannels, alter the condition of
muscle, skin and viscus; and these alterations,apperceived
like the original object, in as many specificportionsof the
cortex, combine with it in consciousness and transformit
from an object-simply-apprehendedinto an object-emotionally-felt. No new principleshave to be invoked,nlothing
is postulated beyoindthe ordinary reflex circuit, and the
topical centres admitted in one shape or another by all to
exist.
It must be confessed that a crucial test of the truth of
the hypothesisis quite as hard to obtain as its decisive refutation. A case of complete internal and external corporeal
anmesthesia,
without motor alteration or alterationof intelligence except emotional apathy,would afford,
if not a crucial
test, at least a strong presumption,in favourof the truthof
the view we have set forth; whilst the persistenceof strong
emotional feelingin such a case would completelyoverthrow
our case. Hysterical anesthesias seem never to be complete
enough to cover the ground. Complete anmesthesiasfrom
organic disease, on the otherhand, are excessivelyrare. In
the famous case of Remigius Leims, niomentionis made by
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204
WILLIAM JAMES:
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WHAT IS AN EMOTION ?
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