Las emociones y la explicación de la acción

Abstract

In this paper I shall examine some features of emotions and of their connections with other propositional attitudes like beliefs, thoughts and other pro-attitudes. Emotions have a place in «the space of reasons» and we often explain intentional actions by reference to emotions. I go through the different ways we use emotion words and the consequences this has on the explanation of emotions and of actions. Although most emotions have a propositional content, I think that Davidson’s model is too restrictive as an explanation of emotion. I argue that we are also capable of understanding emotion, or action, as a «reasonable» effect of other propositional attitudes. Finally I also try to say something about the role of traits and other general attitudes, in guiding explanations and in limiting the kind of mental states that can figure in them.