A Deweyan Philosophical Take on Emotions: A Layered Theory.

The book puts forward a layered theory of emotions arguing that emotional processes can best be understood as occurrences that happen within complex emotional situational scenarios that integrate different levels that cannot always be taken apart. It stands as an original philosophical contribution to Emotion Theory that aims to explain away several misunderstandings about the nature of emotions, and solve some of the puzzles about their nature. The book is divided in three parts which together offer: the historical Deweyan background of the theory, the novel theoretical proposal and its several insights and, in the spirit of pragmatism, traces down some consequences for philosophy of mind, Deweyan scholarship and education. The overall book will unfold an underlying logic of emotions which is more akin to a creative endeavor than to a fixed and mechanical structure.
The first part provides the Deweyan historical background and shows how it gives rise to the hypothetical suggestion of the Layered Theory of Emotions. After laying down the Layered Theory of Emotions, it then presents how experience key reformulation in Dewey’s work granted research in emotion theory and provides the situated approach to emotions needed for the theory proposed. The second part is the presentation of a collection of insights that spring from the Layered Theory. Among other things, it will show the importance of some new distinctions, such as meta-emotions and emotional depth, and provide a different understanding of previous emotional categories, such as transference and emotional habits. It is this theoretical explanation of how the new distinctions help to better explain the already available theoretical distinctions that reinforces the importance of a possible layered theory of emotions. The insights also enable explaining some past theoretical misconceptions (e.g. emotions’ opposition to reason) because the layered theory enables seeing how conceptual interconnections between emotions, actions, desires and beliefs are established, as well as identifying the link between different emotional entities (feelings, emotions, moods, etc.). Taken as a whole the second part helps to explain emotions’ slippery nature, and with the new theoretical framework, it is easier to see why emotions’ object can be misinterpreted and how to best grasp their intentionality. The way in which the several layers interact also provides a way to better describe how feelings, emotions and moods can be transferred from one target to another, and how a different perspective can be put forward concerning emotions’ apparent messy world. In addition, the final overall picture will enable to further explain why sometimes emotions appear against rationality, while at other times they seem to be the source of reasonableness. This in turn allows philosophy to explain both the continuity with other species as well as the sense of discontinuity often also identified. Finally, the third part of the book concludes by drawing some consequences of accepting such a layered theory of emotions for philosophy of mind, and for the general philosophical task. The book hopes to raise thought provoking questions for emotion theory, as well as for philosophy of mind, and point out possible future research directions to deepen Dewey’s insightful scholarship.