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Emotions as Reasons: Against the Standard Belief/Desire Account of Action

Mason, Lindsey Teague

Abstract Details

2013, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Philosophy.
In this dissertation, I will defend the thesis that emotions are reasons for actions. I defend this thesis against the standard account of action, for which only belief/desire pairs are reasons for action. As preliminaries, I defend an embodied appraisal view of what emotions are, and I present a Burge-style entitlement view of how emotions, which are nonpropositional, can be reasons. I begin my main argument by considering purely expressive actions, those actions which, according to Rosalind Hursthouse, are intentional, not done in order to achieve some further goal, and cannot be explained without reference to emotion. In chapter 4, I argue that all attempts to save the standard account from this challenge fail. In chapter 5, I argue against two attempts to explain expressive actions outside the standard view, and then I present my own view. Then in the last chapter, I present a more broad view of how emotions rationalize actions in non-expressive ways.
Abraham Roth (Advisor)
Justin D'Arms (Committee Member)
Timothy Schroeder (Committee Member)
164 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Mason, L. T. (2013). Emotions as Reasons: Against the Standard Belief/Desire Account of Action [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1376485454

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Mason, Lindsey. Emotions as Reasons: Against the Standard Belief/Desire Account of Action. 2013. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1376485454.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Mason, Lindsey. "Emotions as Reasons: Against the Standard Belief/Desire Account of Action." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1376485454

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)