ABSTRACT
The Western mind is full of dichotomies and linearities. It is difficult for us to break down domains like cognition and emotion so powerfully articulated and so long ago established. Our theories separate emotion and knowledge, and we claim that even if they are related, it is only in the simplest manner. For example, most argue that emotion is the consequence of thought; thus, to paraphrase Descartes, passion is the sweat of thought. Such a view has its modern theoretical counterparts: The theory of emotion associated with Schachter and Singer (1962) holds that emotions are simply the by-product of an organism’s general arousal and the attributions regarding such arousal made in a specific context. In this theory, thought is “real,” while emotion is only an epipheno-menon of thought. This treatment of emotions as epiphenomena is most common in theories of emotion.
