ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the relation between our folk categories of emotions, such as anger, sadness, fear, etc., and their potential neural mechanisms. Anti-realism: according to anti-realism, our folk categories of emotions refer to any genuine, tangible, or existing items or episodes in the world. Revisionism implies that our folk categories of emotions exist as such, but something relatively similar does have scientific validity. Revisionism says our folk categories will need to be revised, depending on future scientific discoveries about emotions. Anti-reductionism entails that emotions cannot be reduced to biological mechanisms. Emotions have been investigated since the dawn of philosophy, with theories advanced by both ancient philosophers, such as Aristotle and Mencius, as well as early modern philosophers, such as Descartes, Spinoza, and Hume. Biological theories are inspired by Darwin's pioneering study of emotional expressions, where he argues for continuity across humans and other animals.
