Rick Anthony Furtak: "Emotion, Intentionality, and Embodiment"

A few decades ago, cognitive theories of emotion were on the rise in both psychology and philosophy.  Today, a fair amount of controversy still appears to be raging over the fairly basic question of whether or not emotions are cognitive.  On the other hand, this appearance of conflict is somewhat deceiving, since the controversy is not so much a clash between antithetical stances as a critical debate in which each side is being forced to refine and qualify its position, and to develop better alternatives.  I attempt in this essay to sort out some of the points of contention between cognitivism and its rivals, offering some ideas about how some of these disputes might be resolved in future interdisciplinary research.

Rick Anthony Furtak is from the Philosophy Department, Colorado College, USA.