Einstein Visiting Fellow's Lecture: Jesse Prinz (CUNY) und Gen Eickers (Berlin)

"Beyond Innateness and Construction: A Performative Theory of Emotion”

ABSTRACT

According to the most influential view in contemporary psychology, emotions are evolved universal responses grounded in the body.  When this view came into prominence, it was presented as a challenge to the then popular view that emotions are social constructions: culturally learned patterns of behavior that have no consistent relationship to biology. Constructionists underestimate the role of the body, we concur, but the innateness view under-estimates context sensitivity and cultural influence. We propose a “performative” account that combines the constructionist emphasis on context-sensitive scripts with the bodily nature of emotions.

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