Philosophy of Emotions - Essay Example

?Philosophy of Emotions: Comprehensive Exercise The renowned philosophers of the modern age like Jean Paul Sartre, Martin Heidegger and Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, the proponents of existentialism and the related theories have put forward their theories with ‘emotions’ which redefine the common notion and concept. They work out with the philosophy of emotions and apply in their concepts. The aspect of emotion has been put differently by the three writers even though a close similarity is running over here. The present article tries to analyze the works of the persons aforesaid and which tries to connect with the philosophy of emotions by the three philosophers and brings out a comprehensive display of the ideas of the three. How the philosophy of emotions is skilfully dealt with the theories is given more emphasis in the essay. The phenomenology of Emotion: J-P Sartre: The phenomenology of emotions has been put differently by different writers and among the writers Sartre stands high and unique.Jean Paul Sartre has been proclaimed as the foremost philosopher and thinker of modern French and who in his seminal work, entitled Being and Nothing has analyzed how emotion is linked with the consciousness of human mind. According to him two realities lie beyond the conscious experience of the persons- “the being of the object of consciousness and that of consciousness itself” (Onof, 2010). The dual activity of consciousness works as a major role in taking out the emotional phase a conscious is attempting . The emotions surging from objects are taking a magical shape and form a firm hold in the consciousness of human mind. This magical shape has a big role in comprehending the things and mind acts upon the comprehension. Thus emotion and the projection of it in mind is very important and both make links to each other. J.P.Satre has analyzed the implication of emotions in his renowned book titled The Phenomenology of Emotions. Before Sartre’s theory came into existence the theories of William James persisted and it speaks as mentioned by Mary Warnock in the preface of The Phenomenology of Emotion, “emotion is the consciousness of physiological disturbance” (Sartre, 2001, p.vii). But when the theory of Sartre became popular the notion got changed. According to Sartre consciousness must necessarily always be aware of itself (Sartre, 2001, p. ix). The theory of consciousness according to Sartre is connected with the psychoanalytic theory of unconsciousness. Through finding this he has reached his theory of emotions well. Consciousness in Sartrian point of view is “a product of phenomenology” (Sartre, 2001, p.x). Sartre states that emotions like all other mental acts are directed towards an object (Sartre, 2001, p.xiii). And emotion is the conjunction of both subject and object, a synthesis of the two. Emotion is rather cognitive and it is the thing by which the persons apprehend things in their forms to the cognitive level. A kind of magical implication of image comes with the objects which in any way can be linked with the cognitive aspects of a person not in a rational way. The rational aspects underlined with the object may not work our as it in the cognitive level as so what is absorbed may be different from the reality. Sartre clubbed the theory of emotion with his doctrine of existentialism which takes the central idea that “men are nothing except what they choose to become, their essence consists in what they choose to do.” And it says, “Emotion arises when they choose to see the world in a particular way, namely the magical” (Sartre, 2001, p.xv). Emotions are given a global outlook by the renowned French thinker Jean Paul Sartre. He considered emotions as a method to cope up with the difficult situations that come in one man’s life. Persons use the emotions not in a concrete shape but what is suited to the cognitive level of them. These are fluctuating from situation to situation and person to person and a great task of soothing the situation. According to him consciousness does not make any sense, rather it comes out from the awareness of objects. So the writer states that consciousness is of the objects accumulated. A direct link is made between the objects and consciousness. So as taken from the words of Sartre, “ a Phenomenological emotion which, after “putting the world in brackets, “will study emotion as a purely transcendental phenomenon, not addressing itself to particular emotions, but seeking to attain and elucidate the transcendent essence of emotion as an organized type of consciousness” (Sartre & Stephen, 200, p.66). Thus Sartre states that emotion is fully transcendent in nature and thus it is implemented in the minds of the people. Being in a Mood: M. Heidegger: Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) is considered as the greatest philosopher of the modern Germany. He has introduced a well known entity, Dasein or “Human Being” which has been considered as a major contribution to phenomenology (Romano, 2009). His contribution to phenomenology has again distinguished the terms like anxiety and nothing. According to him “anxiety is a fundamental mood which reveals the world hood of the world to us,” (Large, 2008, p.71). It is better to understand anxiety if one is differentiating it from other moods. Here a comparison between anxiety and fear is given is his noted work, Being and Time. He states that “fear is always fear of something threatening, some particular thing in the world.” The author puts anxiety as different. According to his words, “If fear is fearful of something particular and determinate, then anxiety is anxious about nothing in particular and is indeterminate” (Critchley, 2009). So it can be stated that anxiety is about nothingness and it is severe than the mood of fear. One is explicit whereas the other is implicit. Heidegger has deeply analyzed the play of anxiety and mood in the humans. According to him, “Anxiety, on the contrary, has no object” (Large, 2008, p.72). As it is having no object indefiniteness forms to be the quality of the mood of anxiety and nothingness fills in here. The writer further retorts that the movements of anxiety to nothingness “conceals the ontological basis of my world, but occasionally and perhaps without premeditation, anxiety can strip all this way, dissolving them into a fog of nothingness, such that for a moment my world as a whole is revealed.”(P.72) This nothingness of Heidegger cannot be considered as a term negatively formed rather a term pertaining to positive goals of Dasein. In the ontological categorization of both anxiety and nothing, both are the contributors of existential philosophy. One is dependent on the other and vice versa. So it is said, “Our own position is that the nothing is closer to the origin than the act of negation” (Sheehan, 2001). Anxiety in taking as a part of emotional phenomenology has taken into the account of the nothingness it is generated in the human beings. So Heidegger’s implementation of anxiety to his theories has formatted a worldhood of world in each and every human being. The Genealogy of Emotion: F. Nietzsche: Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900) has stretched his ideas on morale feeling and emotion in his work, Genealogy of Morals. He has used the term genealogy so as to trace the history of the values that were persisting in human society. By morale feeling and emotion he might have put the evolution of the values and morals. The ancient society had used the terms in connection with their set up and the modern religions have put them all for the favour of them. Nietzsche is a strong critique against such prejudices which step up the religious morals. It was still divided into three essays and a culmination of the morals could be seen its place in his work. This work traces the evolution of moral feelings and the related concepts with the intention to underestimate the moral prejudices of the Christianity and Judaism. In his work, Beyond Good and Evil which was published before On the Genealogy of Morality, he “views the development of moral feelings as a reaction of the herd itself against the strong once a minimum of social stability has been achieved” (Dreyfus & Wrathall, 2011, p.249). In On the Genealogy of Morals he accounts the origin of values and feelings associated with the religion. In his first treatise titled Good and Evil, Good and Bad he states that the meaning of good and evil are much more different from its meaning at present. The good presented the aristocratic morality whereas evil projected the morality of the low class people. These two elements are representing two sides; the good is representing the strong and the evil is representing the weak section of society. The slave morality has been termed as the resentment against the other class and so the religions, as often governed by the strong, used the aristocratic morality. Nietzsche says in his first essay as, “On the contrary, it was the “good people” themselves, that is, the noble, powerful, higher-ranking, and higher-thinking people who felt and set themselves and their actions up as good, that is to say, of the first rank, in opposition to everything low, low-minded, common, and vulgar” (Nietzsche). His presentation of the development of values and morals has been considered as against the religious structure of values but the implication of these values state that history has been helping for the clear comprehension of the morals. He tries to put up the moral hegemony of the ascetics. It is seen that “Nietzsche argues against the ascetic priest by claiming that strength flows from superabundance of strength, and weakness is similarly a kind of natural state; in fact the notion of a "doer" is itself an illusion; only actions exist--a supposition that Heidegger would later embellish considerably” (Geddes, 2012). But still Nietzsche holds the point that some emotions are culturally transferred to human beings. He holds the notion that this is the play of history and genealogy in the matter of values and emotions. Conclusions: In considering the theories of Sartre, Heidegger and Nietzsche regarding the elements of emotions and their applicability, it can be seen that history has been playing a major role in all these. What is considered by the present generation of people is put under clear cut examination and a refined form of these emotions is produced by the three great philosophers. The ontological aspect of emotion takes the prime role in the phenomenological strata of life. The theory of emotion thus takes back to the history of emotion and structure in the society. So, the study of these social set up and differences makes the comprehension of the theories related with the philosophy of emotion easier and meaningful. Reference list Critchley, S 2009, Being and Time, part 5: Anxiety, 012 Guardian News and Media Limited, . Dreyfus, HL., Wrathall, MA, 2011, A Companion to Phenomenology and Existentialism, John Wiley & Sons. Geddes, D 2012, Toward an Evaluation of Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals, The Satirist, viewed 15 January 2012, http://www.thesatirist.com/books/GenealogyofMorals.html Onof CJ, Sartre’s Existentialism, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, University College, London, viewed 15 January 2012, Large, W 2008, Heidegger's Being and time: an Edinburgh philosophical guide, Edinburgh University Press. Romano, C 2009, Heil Heidegger, the chronicle of higher education, Washington, D.C., viewed 15 January 2012, . Sheehan, T 2001, Reading Heidegger's “What is Metaphysics?” Stanford University, viewed 15 January 2012, . Sartre, JP 2001, Sketch for a theory of the emotion,illustrated edition, Routledge. Sartre, JP & Stephen Priest 2001, Jean-Paul Sartre: basic writings, Routledge. Read More