The Cultural Politics of Emotion - Sara Ahmed

For further reading Sara Ahmed recommends following texts:

Campbell 1994 -> dismissing women Lewis & Haviland 1993 -> interdisciplinary collection on emotions Lupton 1998 -> interdisciplinary approach to emotions Strongman 2003 ->psychological approach to emotions Kemper 1990-> sociological collections Bendelow & Williams 1998 -> sociological collections Lutz 1988 -> anthropological approach Solomon 2003 -> philosophical collection Reddy 2001 -> historical approach

There is a significant split in theories of emotions:

BODILY SENSATION (William James, Descartes, David Hume) VS COGNITION (Aristotele, Solomon)

BODILY SENSATION: Emotion is the feeling of bodily change. We feel fear because heart is racing and we're sweating. No thought and evaluation involved.

COGNITION: Emotions involve judgements, attitudes etc

Many theorists suggest, that emotions involve judgement or bodily feelings as well as forms of cognition. Descartes "The passions of the Soul" talks about the relation between bodily sensation, emotion and judgement (vielleicht eher Sekundärliteratur lesen). Descartes (1985, 349) suggests that objects do not excite diverse passions because they are diverse, but because of the diverse way in which they may harm or help us.

Sara Ahmed states that the distinction between sensation and emotion can only be analytic. She uses the term impression to avoid having to make the distinction between bodily sensation, emotion and thought.