A Deweyan Philosophical Take on Emotions: A Layered Theory

This book puts forward a layered theory of emotions, which argues that emotional processes are best understood as occurrences that happen within complex emotional situational scenarios that integrate different and interconnected layers. According to this theory, there is an underlying logic of emotions which is more akin to a creative endeavor than to a fixed and mechanical structure. The book is divided in three parts. The first part provides the Deweyan historical background and shows how it gives rise to the hypothetical suggestion of the Layered Theory of Emotions. After laying down the Layered Theory of Emotions, the following chapters show how Dewey’s philosophical work grounds the theoretical suggestion. The second part of the book presents various insights that spring from the proposed theory. Among other things, it will show the importance of some new distinctions, such as meta-emotions and emotional depth, and provide a different understanding of previous emotional categories, such emotional intentionality and emotional habits. Finally, the third part of the book concludes by drawing some consequences of the layered theory of emotions for philosophy of mind, and for the general philosophical task. The book hopes to raise thought provoking questions and point out possible future research directions to deepen Dewey’s insightful scholarship, and Emotion Theory.

Dina Mendonca is research fellow at Instituto de Filosofia da Nova in Lisbon, Portugal. She received her Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina, and has published widely on American pragmatism and Philosophy for Children. Her teaching also focuses on the role of writing for thinking, and how philosophy can be an aid for creative processes.