Although it is widely and perhaps universally recognized that the emotions have large and richly textured qualitative dimensions, there is no standard inventory of emotional qualia. Accordingly, for much of its compass, the present chapter will be concerned with the enterprise of identifying emotional qualia and classifying them. The more theoretical enterprise of explaining emotional qualia will be less prominent. In the end, though, we will find that emotional qualia conform to the theory of perceptual and bodily qualia that has been developed in earlier chapters. This will make it possible for us to explain them, and thereby to bring them into the domain of science and naturalistic metaphysics.

SOMATIC THEORIES OF THE EMOTIONS

Whatever else the category of emotional qualia may encompass, it is clear that it includes a large range of bodily sensations. When I am afraid my body is engaged in my fear: my heart throbs, I have butterflies in my stomach, the rate of my breathing increases, and my hands grow cold and clammy. All of these physical conditions have a sensory dimension. A throbbing heart feels quite differently than one that is beating at a normal rate, and an agitated stomach feels quite differently than one that is at rest. Disgust is also characterized by a set of bodily conditions. When a smell disgusts me I gag, my eyes water, my nose wrinkles, my lips curl, and I may wretch. Each of these conditions has a proprietary qualitative character.