The Work of Emotion

Abstract Emotion, especially as expressed, has social impact. Can emotions, then, be seen as manipulative devices, strategic stances? They are sometimes used in this way, and some philosophers have proposed understanding emotion instrumentally. This is unsatisfactory, however, at both the practical and the theoretical levels. Manipulative emotive responses could only work if they were not believed to be manipulative; so if we were all doing it, it would not work (without collective self-deception). Targeted emotion would also lack depth. And anyway, emotions are too unlike actions to remain well-formed when used strategically.