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(2015) Synthese 192 (3).
There are many psychic mechanisms by which people engage with their selves. We argue that an important yet hitherto neglected one is self-appraisal via meta-emotions. We discuss the intentional structure of meta-emotions and explore the phenomenology of a variety of examples. We then present a pilot study providing preliminary evidence that some facial displays may indicate the presence of meta-emotions. We conclude by arguing that meta-emotions have an important role to play in higher-order theories of psychic harmony and that Frankfurt-style accounts, which explain a person’s “reflective self-endorsement” exclusively in terms of volitional hierarchies, are inchoate and need to be augmented by a theory of meta-emotions.
Publication details
DOI: 10.1007/s11229-014-0588-x
Full citation:
Jäger, C. , Bänninger-Huber, E. (2015). Looking into meta-emotions. Synthese 192 (3), pp. 787-811.