Commentary: Constructing nonhuman animal emotion

摘要

In a recent opinion paper, Bliss-Moreau argues for a new framework for studying non-human animal emotions. Contrary to Classical Views of Emotion (CVE) such as Basic Emotion theories, she claims that “emotions are not modules or hardwired circuits, but rather emerge from a combination of ingredients” (Bliss-Moreau, 2017, p. 185), as predicted by Theories of Constructed Emotions (TCE). Such an endeavor is interesting and praiseworthy, as it promises to overcome the anthropomorphic vice to impose human emotion categories on the whole animal kingdom. Inasmuch as it makes room for the construction of genuinely non-human emotions, TCE allegedly enables us to “understand animal minds for their own sake” (Barrett, 2017, p. 276). However, I suspect that this enterprise rests on shaky foundations.