New Science of Emotion

Why a science of emotion begins by studying emotions as phenomena found in natureIn The New Science of Emotion, Ralph Adolphs argues that emotions are not moods, or thoughts, or even feelings, but important and real phenomena found in nature. Adolphs presents a new integrative and unified theory of emotion, premised on the idea that emotions are representations in the brain. He shows that those representations arose in evolution when animals needed to confront such survival-relevant situations in the environment as facing a predator. These situations engage some of the core features of emotions: they need to abstract over varieties of predator, they need to persist, and they need to coordinate behaviors that can vary according to context. Adolphs explains that these aspects of emotion are criteria that scientists can use to search for emotions in behavior and in the brain.Along the way, Adolphs offers a comprehensive tour through psychological theories, neuroscience data, studies in animals and humans, and current developments in philosophy of mind and cognitive science. In building his own functionalist theory of emotion, he argues that emotions are biological, evolved phenomena that are distinguished by what they do (their function) rather than how they happen to be constituted in the brain and body. He argues further that scientists can study emotions using the same epistemological stance they use for memory, attention, and perception. A science of emotion begins with studying emotion states, not conscious experiences of emotions. A unified framework for understanding emotion will enable us to investigate emotion in animals and humans—and perhaps even in artificial intelligence.