ABSTRACT
In the first section, I offer an accurate analysis of the structure of moods and of atmospheres, arguing that both phenomena are distinct in kind. Moods are affective states, atmospheres are affective properties. This “distinctiveness thesis,” as I call it, provides an answer to the first question posed above (section 2). Next, I focus on how atmospheres as affective properties are apprehended and experienced. In particular, I defend the “model of feeling” according to which atmospheres are apprehended by a feeling that is sui generis (section 3). I proceed then to examine the wide array of experiences which the feeling of atmospheres might elicit (section 4). In the last part of the chapter, I provide an answer to the second question previously mentioned. In particular, I argue that terms for atmospheres are borrowed from the vocabulary of moods on the basis of a similarity between both phenomena. I call it “the similarity explanation” (section 5). The main findings are summarised in the conclusion (section 6).
