Emotions and social construction:
is there still a place for socioconstructivism in the philosophy of emotions?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47456/sofia.v12i2.43351Keywords:
emotions, social construction, situated affectivity, cultural variation, debunking projectAbstract
In the 1980s, a research program became popular in the field of philosophy and psychology of emotions. This program, called social constructionism, claimed that emotions were products of social factors and could not be understood in an adaptationist vocabulary. However, over time these theories lost much of their strength and popularity, and practically disappeared from contemporary philosophy of emotions. The goal of this paper will be to diagnose this predicament, and ask whether social constructionism could still be an interesting theoretical path for the study of emotions. To do this, we will clarify the meaning of the “construction” metaphor and examine some of the main constructionist theories of emotions. Although our conclusions will be mostly negative regarding the social construction label, they may nevertheless bring some relief to those who are sympathetic to its theoretical goals, methodological prescriptions and focus of analysis.
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