Work

A Paradox of Past-Directed Fear: An Idealized Warrant Approach to the Fittingness of Emotion

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: This paper presents a paradox based on the following assumptions: that emotions are warranted when you are justified in thinking that the emotion is fitting, that there are warranted cases of past-directed fear, that fear is fitting in the face of its formal object: dangerousness, and that this formal object consists in a probability of damage or harm to something of value. The paper then discusses three likely solutions: (1) denying that past-directed fear can be warranted, (2) using an alternative formulation of fear's formal object, and (3) giving up warrant as justified as fittingness. Finally, it provides a case for the third solution and presents a warrant-based approach to fittingness and the appropriateness of emotions in general.

Source: Ergo an Open Access Journal of Philosophy

DOI: 10.3998/ergo.8581

Author: Jonas Blatter

Institution: Ruhr University Bochum

Language: English

Topic: Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics

Subfield: Philosophy

Field: Arts and Humanities

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: diamond

Funder: Ministerium für Kultur und Wissenschaft des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen

Award: G6528383624