The question is commonly asked, usually by young folk to older folk, “How will I know when I am in love?” What is usually being asked in this question is “What is it like to be in love, so that I can recognize it?” The answer which is usually given in response is something like, “You will know when it happens. If you have to ask, you haven’t felt it.” But is it not possible to do better than this? Sure, the actual qualia of our emotional experience are certainly intrinsically private, but a description of what physiological processes, exactly, we are feeling should be possible. The purpose of this post will be to briefly describe the various things which we are feeling during our emotional experiences.
We have already encountered, in a previous post, William James’ characterization of emotions as the feelings we experience due to a physiological response in our body. While I strongly argued that feelings are not all there are to emotional experiences, his account of the feelings which accompany our emotions is (very) roughly accurate at its core. The short coming of James’ account, however, was his limiting the physiology which we feel to those which take place inside the head. Such a view of the physiology of our emotional engagements with the world is simply too limited.
The first area of physiological activity which James focuses on is that of the autonomic nervous system. These experiences are what contribute most to the perception that emotions are things which happen to us, for such physiological processes are largely, and in the case of particulars completely non-voluntary. When we are surprised, we jump, our heart starts racing, we breathe faster and/or our muscles tighten. This last aspect, the tightening of particular muscles in the case of particular emotions is what James also focuses upon, especially in the case of facial muscles in the case of smiles, scowls, frowns, etc. Thus, to be happy is more than feeling inclined to smile. Rather it is quite literally the feeling of smiling itself.
However that feeling of being inclined to smile also plays a part as well, for a significant part of emotional experience can be described, following Nico Frijda, action readiness. This can be understood as the beginning stage(s) which characterize the semantic structure of events as well as motor schemas:
- Getting into a state of readiness
- The initial state
- The starting process
- The main process (either instantaneous or prolonged)
- An option to stop
- An option to resume
- An option to iterate or continue the main process
- A check to see if a goal has been met
- The finishing process
- The final state (Narayanan, 1997)
Being angry is not identical with angry behavior, as the behaviorist would claim. However, the feeling of being angry is the feeling of one’s getting into a state of readiness for angry behavior. Perhaps the behaviorist could define the getting ready as the angry behavior itself, however I think such would be a bit inaccurate. The angry behavior which I see the behaviorist identifying anger with is steps 3 and 4 rather than steps 1 and 2. Furthermore, even if we did identify steps 1 and 2 with angry behavior this would not change the fact that we are only talking about the experience or feel of anger, not what anger is itself. It would also be inappropriate to suggest that we necessarily follow through with the behavior we are getting ready for, or even that the act of getting ready is itself goal oriented toward the final state.
Other physiological responses play roles in our emotional experience such as posture or kinesthetics. The angry man carried himself and moves differently than does the sad man. Similarly, the gestures which a person naturally uses also play a significant part in the feeling of an emotion, for a gesture not only has a feeling to it, but is also loaded with meaning. All of these physiological processes each contribute to what it feels like to experience an emotion, and a description of these processes is not intrinsically private, however private the qualia which correspond to such processes may be.
However, it cannot be emphasized enough that there is more to emotions than mere physiological feelings. Emotions also consist of intentional content such as objects, judgments about the objects, judgments about these judgments and judgments about my relation to these objects, which in itself consists of various dimensions. It should also be remembered that emotions not only evaluate and appraise these objects “as they really are”, but also bestows values upon them in a way which is not and indeed should not be distinguished in everyday life. The way in which this process of actively perceiving is united with and related to actively engaging the world is by the process of getting into a state of readiness and all the feelings which accompany such a physical process. All of these things contribute to what can be called an emotional experience.
