ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on a common phenomenon: sometimes one experience the emotions of other. Some theories of emotions have consequences for our understanding of what it is like to be someone else, and vice versa. There are a variety of cognitive theories of the emotions, but they share a commitment to the idea that emotions are beliefs, or complexes of beliefs and desires. One important class of bodily changes associated with emotions are facial expressions. It has been widely noted that deliberately producing a smile tends to engender feelings of happiness. The chapter discusses some issues relating to the limits of knowing what it is like. Knowing what it is like is both important and puzzling. It is important in that it is such a striking feature of human experience, because of its links to ethics, and because of the role it has played under the label "sympathy" in the history of philosophy.
