Fiction, Belief and Emotive Response

Dissertation, State University of New York at Buffalo (1997)
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Abstract

There is an apparent inconsistency between the ways which we respond emotively to real and to mimetic presentations. Since emotive responses are normally influenced by a certain belief state that we hold regarding particular circumstances in conjunction with real events, it should follow that we only respond emotively to those events which we believe to be real. This is not, however, the case. We very often respond emotively to situations which we have no reason to believe are actual. That is, we respond with seemingly real emotions to "unreal" situations such as those presented in fiction and film. ;Both Plato and Aristotle addressed this issue and provided many of the paths of argumentation still under debate today. I begin by outlining the problem to be considered and discuss the appropriate terms with which to refer to the phenomena under study. Using Plato and Aristotle as a foundation, and showing how belief fits into their claims about mimesis, I then move to the twentieth century with an explanation of some contemporary theories of the cognitive operations of the emotions. I address problems of emotional appropriateness and fitness, and I consider an empathy theory advocated by Robert Gordon in terms of mental simulation. Recent work on the "rational" functions of emotions should help to clarify the problems related to emotive responses to mimesis. Understanding how the emotions work, whether they are based in rationality and the degree to which they depend on belief, will indicate whether the emotive responses we have to mimetic situations are in any sense "justified." ;I further examine questions concerning not only why we have emotive responses to these non-existential-belief-producing states of affairs, but also what kind of emotive responses are in fact produced and if they are of the same quality as those aroused by "real" states of affairs. I address theories of fiction put forward by Kendall Walton, Peter Lamarque, Susan Feagin and others in an attempt to explain the differing perspectives from which contemporary aestheticians are working

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