Enjoyment as Enriched Experience: A Theory of Affect and Its Relation to Consciousness

Description

This book has two main tasks: (1) to call attention to the special challenges presented by our experience of affect―all varieties of pleasure and pain―and (2) to show how these challenges can be overcome by an “enrichment approach” that understands affect as the enrichment or deterioration of conscious activity as a whole. This “enrichment approach” draws from Alfred North Whitehead as well as the pragmatists John Dewey and William James, all of whom thought of affect as a fundamental aspect of experience rather than a special class of feelings. It also draws from recent scientific research that suggests that the dynamic repertoire of consciousness can change, effectively expanding and contracting our capacity to feel. Weaving these perspectives together, the book develops a theory that accounts for the peculiar phenomenology of affect and sheds new light on a diverse range of experiences, from everyday pleasures and pains to the special satisfactions of the arts and religious festivity. At the same time, it presents a fresh and distinctively affect-centered perspective on the nature of consciousness. Preface Contents List of Figures 1: Introduction The Problem of Affect Feeling, Value, and Causation The Enrichment Approach Enrichment as Harmonic Intensity The Causal Enrichment of Experience The Enjoyment of Sadness in Music Systematic Considerations References Part I: The Problem of Affect 2: The Problem of Value in Scientific Explanation The Modern Problem of Value The Sails of Theseus A Comparison of Köhler and Damasio on the Problem of Value The “Affective-Valuative Circle” References 3: The Core Challenge Alliesthesia and the Chocolate Experiment Affect Zombies Analytic Philosophy of Pleasure References 4: Adding Pieces to the Puzzle The Data of Affective Science The Unity of Affect Intensity and Other Dimensions of Affect Affect and Motivation Affect and Emotion Affect and Information Affect and Cognition References Desiderata for a Theory of Affect A theory of affect should be able to account for the following features: Part II: The Harmonic Theory of Affect 5: Affect as a Feeling of Harmonic Intensity Harmonic Intensity and Contrast Causal Contrasts and Nonlinear Dynamics Causal Events The Contrastive Determination of Causal Events Nonlinear Dynamical Systems and Contrastive States Stability Constraints The Dynamic Repertoire Contrastive States: A More Formal Account Feelings of Causal Contrast: The Harmonic Theory of Affect A Brief Review of Emerging Evidence References 6: Affect and Consciousness The Problem of Consciousness for Pan-Experientialism Toward an Affective View of the Jamesian Stream The Interrelatedness of Flow, Meaning, and Affect Flow and Affect Meaning and Affect Varieties of Affect References 7: Affect and the Feeling Self Minimal Self-Awareness and the Minimal Self Subjectivity Changes Non-objectifying Self-Enjoyment Expansive Feelings Why Does Expansiveness Feel Good? The Feeling Self as a Unique Individual Conclusion References 8: The Affective Continuum Bipolarity and the Affective Baseline Is a Baseline Sufficient for Bipolarity? Explorations of the Affective Continuum Narrow Feelings: Strong Pains and Pleasures Interlude: Testing the Differentiated-ness of Feeling Different Causes of Affective Change Feelings of Dissonance Wide Feelings Feelings of Motivation The Boundaries of Affect References 9: Enjoyment Pleasure and Enjoyment Enjoyment and Rhythm The Conditions of Enjoyment: Energy, Engagement, and Skill Human Enjoyment The Enjoyment of Sadness Existential Enjoyment References 10: Conclusion Testing the Theory The Mystery of Qualities and the Importance of Importance Value and the Critique of Experience Causation and Other Unfinished Groundwork Nature as a Process of Perpetual Enrichment References Index