The non-classical thesis of emotion

The non-classical thesis of emotion (NCE) states that the conceptual resources of classical cognitive science cannot adequately account for certain important features of emotion. It also states that these features can be adequately accounted for by employing the conceptual resources of non-classical forms of cognitive science. In this paper I examine one version of this argument — that put forward by Giovanna Colombetti — and argue that she does not succeed in making the case for NCE. In fact, there is a general problem with all forms of NCE, since they all assume that classical cognitive science is too restrictive, when if anything the reverse is true. I conclude by arguing that what is needed here is a theory of pragmatics, rather than a theory of deep conceptual structure. The use of different terms by different groups of cognitive scientists does not grant one group privileged access to cognitive resources inaccessible to the other, but rather serves as a heuristic that directs their attention to different features of the phenomena being studied. Thus the real contribution of non-classical models of emotion is to draw our attention to certain key aspects of emotion requiring explanation that had perhaps been somewhat neglected by classical models. 1 THE NON-CLASSICAL THESIS OF EMOTION (NCE) During the past decade, some philosophers and psychologists have argued that the conceptual resources of classical cognitive science cannot adequately account for certain important features of emotion. They have further argued that these features can be captured by nonclassical forms of cognitive science (eg. [6]). I will refer to such claims as the non-classical thesis of emotion (NCE). In this paper, I examine one particular form of NCE — namely, that put forward by Giovanna Colombetti. Before proceeding to examine Colombetti’s arguments in detail, however, let’s spell out the main components of NCE in a bit more detail. NCE may be characterised in terms of three lists and three claims, as follows: Three lists: 1. A list of the conceptual resources of classical cognitive science 2. A list of the conceptual resources of (some form of) non-classical cognitive science, which includes at least some elements not found in List 2. 3. A list of the key aspects of emotion that require explanation