The Feeling Body: Affective Science Meets the Enactive Mind

by Giovanna Colombetti

Overview

A proposal that extends the enactive approach developed in cognitive science and philosophy of mind to issues in affective science.

In The Feeling Body, Giovanna Colombetti takes ideas from the enactive approach developed over the last twenty years in cognitive science and philosophy of mind and applies them for the first time to affective science—the study of emotions, moods, and feelings. She argues that enactivism entails a view of cognition as not just embodied but also intrinsically affective, and she elaborates on the implications of this claim for the study of emotion in psychology and neuroscience.

In the course of her discussion, Colombetti focuses on long-debated issues in affective science, including the notion of basic emotions, the nature of appraisal and its relationship to bodily arousal, the place of bodily feelings in emotion experience, the neurophysiological study of emotion experience, and the bodily nature of our encounters with others. Drawing on enactivist tools such as dynamical systems theory, the notion of the lived body, neurophenomenology, and phenomenological accounts of empathy, Colombetti advances a novel approach to these traditional issues that does justice to their complexity. Doing so, she also expands the enactive approach into a further domain of inquiry, one that has more generally been neglected by the embodied-embedded approach in the philosophy of cognitive science.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262318426
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	01/01/2014
Series:	The MIT Press
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	508 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Giovanna Colombetti is Associate Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Sociology, Philosophy, and Anthropology at the University of Exeter, UK.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction xiii

1 Primordial Affectivity 1

1.1 Reclaiming a Broader and Deeper Notion of Affectivity 1

1.2 Spinoza's Conatus: Striving as the Ground of All Affects 4

1.3 Enter the Lived Body: From Maine de Biran's Experience of Effort to Henry's "Interior Quivering" 7

1.4 Heidegger's Care and Moods, and Patocka's "Physiognomic Impressions" 11

1.5 Enactive Sense Making 15

1.6 Primordial Affectivity and Affective Science 20

1.7 Conclusion 24

2 The Emotions: Existing Accounts and Their Problems 25

2.1 Introduction 25

2.2 The Theory of Basic Emotions (BET) 26

2.3 Assessing Existing Criticisms of BET 29

2.4 The Arbitrariness of the Alleged Basic Emotions 36

2.5 The Problematic Unity/Disunity Debate 40

2.6 Alternatives to BET and Their Problems 46

2.7 Conclusion 52

3 Emotional Episodes as Dynamical Patterns 53

3.1 Introduction 53

3.2 Fundamental Concepts of Dynamical Systems Theory (DST) 54

3.3 Dynamical Affective Science 56

3.4 Implications for the Debate on the Nature of the Emotions 70

3.5 Discreteness and Boundaries 75

3.6 Moods 77

3.7 Conclusion 82

4 Reappraising Appraisal 83

4.1 Introduction 83

4.2 Beginnings 84

4.3 Downplaying the Body in the 1960s and 1970s 87

4.4 Appraisal Theory Today: The Body as a Mere Interactant 94

4.5 Eroding the Neural Boundaries between Cognition and Emotion 98

4.6 Enacting Appraisal 101

4.7 Phenomenological Connections 106

4.8 A (Brief) Comparison with Prinz's "Embodied Appraisal" 109

4.9 Conclusion 111

5 How the Body Feels in Emotion Experience 113

5.1 Introduction 113

5.2 A Taxonomy of Bodily Peeling 115

5.3 Conspicuous Bodily Feelings in Emotion Experience 118

5.4 The "Obscurely Felt" Body 122

5.5 Feeling Absorbed 128

5.6 Conclusion 132

6 Ideas for an Affective "Neuro-physio-phenomenology" 135

6.1 Introduction 135

6.2 Neurophenomenology in Theory and Practice 136

6.3 Neurophenomenology and the Study of Consciousness 139

6.4 Affective Neuroscience and Emotion Experience 143

6.5 Outline of an Affective Neuro-physio-phenomenological Method 148

6.6 Bodily Feelings and Emotion Experience 163

6.7 Conclusion 170

7 Feeling Others 171

7.1 Introduction 171

7.2 The Experience- of the Other as a Leib 173

7.3 Perceiving Emotion in Expression 176

7.4 Impressive Others 179

7.5 Feeling Close 181

7.6 Sympathy 184

7.7 Doing as Others Do 187

7.8 Do We Mimic Others to Read Their Minds? 190

7.9 Mimicry as a Mechanism for Social Bonding 194

7.10 Beyond Strict Mimicry 198

7.11 Conclusion 201

Epilogue 203

Notes 205

References 229

Index 261

What People are Saying About This

Mark Johnson

In this clearly written and engaging book, Colombetti draws from approaches as diverse as phenomenology, dynamical systems theory, cognitive science, and neuroscience to make important new contributions to the fields of enactive cognition and affective science. She enriches the enactivist perspective--which focuses on the dynamic meaning-making activity of an organism in its environment--by revealing the primordial role of affective dimensions of cognition in all of our embodied ways of making sense of, and engaging, our world. At the same time, she expands emotion theory by exploring the deep affective patterns by which we engage our world at a level that precedes and underlies our conscious emotional experiences. The impressive result is an excursion through the depths of sometimes hidden processes of directed response and feeling that lie at the heart of our ability to navigate meaningfully within our physical, interpersonal, and cultural surroundings.

Endorsement

In this clearly written and engaging book, Colombetti draws from approaches as diverse as phenomenology, dynamical systems theory, cognitive science, and neuroscience to make important new contributions to the fields of enactive cognition and affective science. She enriches the enactivist perspective—which focuses on the dynamic meaning-making activity of an organism in its environment—by revealing the primordial role of affective dimensions of cognition in all of our embodied ways of making sense of, and engaging, our world. At the same time, she expands emotion theory by exploring the deep affective patterns by which we engage our world at a level that precedes and underlies our conscious emotional experiences. The impressive result is an excursion through the depths of sometimes hidden processes of directed response and feeling that lie at the heart of our ability to navigate meaningfully within our physical, interpersonal, and cultural surroundings.

—Mark Johnson, Knight Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Department of Philosophy, University of Oregon

From the Publisher

Bodily affect, in a sense that goes deeper than basic emotions, has been underplayed in emotion theory and even in some of the most embodied approaches to cognition. Colombetti does a great service in exploring the dynamics of the affective life, gathering together empirical and theoretical perspectives to show that enactive theories need to be even more embodied than they are usually construed to be.

—Shaun Gallagher, Lillian and Morrie Moss Chair of Excellence in Philosophy, University of Memphis

In this clearly written and engaging book, Colombetti draws from approaches as diverse as phenomenology, dynamical systems theory, cognitive science, and neuroscience to make important new contributions to the fields of enactive cognition and affective science. She enriches the enactivist perspective—which focuses on the dynamic meaning-making activity of an organism in its environment—by revealing the primordial role of affective dimensions of cognition in all of our embodied ways of making sense of, and engaging, our world. At the same time, she expands emotion theory by exploring the deep affective patterns by which we engage our world at a level that precedes and underlies our conscious emotional experiences. The impressive result is an excursion through the depths of sometimes hidden processes of directed response and feeling that lie at the heart of our ability to navigate meaningfully within our physical, interpersonal, and cultural surroundings.

—Mark Johnson, Knight Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Department of Philosophy, University of Oregon

Shaun Gallagher

Bodily affect, in a sense that goes deeper than basic emotions, has been underplayed in emotion theory and even in some of the most embodied approaches to cognition. Colombetti does a great service in exploring the dynamics of the affective life, gathering together empirical and theoretical perspectives to show that enactive theories need to be even more embodied than they are usually construed to be.

Editorial Reviews

Giovanna Colombetti's discussion of these topics effectively integrates scientific research and phenomenological descriptions of lived experience. What results is an insightful and genuinely interdisciplinary discussion of emotion that will be of interest to affective scientists, emotion theorists, phenomenologists, and proponents of enactivism....There are many topics in this thought-provoking book that merit further attention.—Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences—

Colombetti's book...is a welcome addition the tradition of enactivism that was inaugurated by Varela, Thompson, and Rosch....The novelty of her proposal lies in its thematic focus....Colombetti is interested in exploring the enactive notion of living and lived embodiment.

—New Ideas in Psychology—

Promising and provocative....Colombetti's book is a valuable contribution to this dialogue, a first sustained argument for enactivism as a unified and coherent understanding of the affects.

—Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews—

An excellent read in enactivism....Colombetti develops her own enactive approach against the backdrop of careful reviews of other theories....a remarkably clear...source of knowledge for all those who wish to learn more about the mind as an embodied and thoroughly living phenomenon.

—Metapsychology—

The Feeling Body is the book that I wish had been available at the beginning of my graduate studies. It will provide an excellent stepping-stone for researchers in this area to develop the nascent area of affectivity and embodiment yet further.

—Constructivist Foundations—

From the Publisher

The Feeling Body is the book that I wish had been available at the beginning of my graduate studies. It will provide an excellent stepping-stone for researchers in this area to develop the nascent area of affectivity and embodiment yet further.

—Constructivist Foundations

Reviews

The Feeling Body is the book that I wish had been available at the beginning of my graduate studies. It will provide an excellent stepping-stone for researchers in this area to develop the nascent area of affectivity and embodiment yet further.

Constructivist Foundations

An excellent read in enactivism....Colombetti develops her own enactive approach against the backdrop of careful reviews of other theories....a remarkably clear...source of knowledge for all those who wish to learn more about the mind as an embodied and thoroughly living phenomenon.

Metapsychology

Promising and provocative....Colombetti's book is a valuable contribution to this dialogue, a first sustained argument for enactivism as a unified and coherent understanding of the affects.

Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

Colombetti's book...is a welcome addition the tradition of enactivism that was inaugurated by Varela, Thompson, and Rosch....The novelty of her proposal lies in its thematic focus....Colombetti is interested in exploring the enactive notion of living and lived embodiment.

New Ideas in Psychology

Giovanna Colombetti's discussion of these topics effectively integrates scientific research and phenomenological descriptions of lived experience. What results is an insightful and genuinely interdisciplinary discussion of emotion that will be of interest to affective scientists, emotion theorists, phenomenologists, and proponents of enactivism....There are many topics in this thought-provoking book that merit further attention.

Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences