Blog 1

Aristotle attempts to divide and categorize human emotions in Book II of his Rhetoric. He presents several binary pairs in an attempt to explain the breadth of human emotion. He also seeks to break down emotional experience into each emotion’s respective frame of mind, person toward whom it is directed, and on what ground it occurs. While this is certainly a noble attempt on his part, this is ultimately a futile effort. Human emotion simply cannot be divided neatly into simple pairs of opposite emotions or neat causal distinctions. Elements of both sides of his pairs and of different emotions can be present simultaneously and, consequently, emotions are rarely so clearly defined.

Aristotle’s distinctions divide emotions in a way that does not reflect human experience. For example, he identifies calmness and anger as opposites. While this may be true externally, this is not necessarily the case when considering both internal emotions and their external expressions. One might very well be outwardly calm while inwardly furious, working diligently to manage their anger. Also, frequently, when anger is externally expressed, it may be the expression of another emotion entirely. In other words, the person, frame of mind, and grounds for anger may have nothing to do with anger itself as Aristotle defines it; rather, a person may be filled with pity or depression or sorrow or irritation and the external expression may be what we call anger: the root emotion may not be what Aristotle considers anger but another emotion. Aristotle’s distinctions fail to take into account the vast interrelatedness and complexity of human emotion.

The same is true for calmness, friendship, fear, kindness, etc. Emotions rarely, if ever, occur in isolation; they build off of each other based on the individual emotional framework of each person. As a result, emotions cannot be defined rationally in an objective way. It is true that each individual’s emotional experience can be understood, to some extent, rationally. However, one must consider each individual’s breadth of emotions subjectively—the emotions he or she is capable of experiencing, to what degree and in what manner he or she experiences those emotions, and how his or her own experiences and physiology cause his or her emotions to work with and in response to each other. Objective and sweeping generalizations about emotions, such as those found in Rhetoric, are helpful only in explaining possible factors related to emotions, but there are infinitesimal factors that cause emotions of various kinds, and they simply do not occur in the neat little boxes Aristotle identifies.