Unprincipled engagements : emotional experience, expression and response.

Philosophically speaking, emotions are a nuisance, even the good ones. There are several reasons for this. First, it is thought that they are a hangover of our animal natures that interfere with our rationality : they gum up our reasoning. This verdict has been familiar since the time of Greek philosophy, which is no doubt why being a cognitive scientists appears a respectable occupation, but being an ‘emotive scientist’ sounds like a blemish on one’s capacity for professional judgement.