‘Quasi-emotions’ were postulated to solve to the famous paradox of fiction, why we feel for fictional characters besides knowing they do not exist. The core idea is that in engagements with fiction, instead of genuine emotions, we have quasi-emotions; both differ in important respects. I focus on video, text-based fiction and pictures (photographs, paintings). Most accounts differ were phrased in terms of less intensity or less imagination involving and thereby “less vivid.” (Walton 2015, Currie 2002, Kind 2023, Langkau 2021) I discuss how promising empirical findings (Sperduti et al. 2016, Humbert-Drotz et al. 2020, Langland-Hassan 2024) fit in the conceptual and philosophical debate and argue: contrary to intensity accounts the intensity of our feelings in fiction can be higher than towards real objects/situations. Even worse, phenomenology and its associated physiology cannot be used to distinguish between genuine emotions and quasi-emotions. After discussing and rejecting “less vividness” as well, I point out another option: Both have different action tendencies or different motivations associated with them. However, this is hard to empirically investigate motivations for passive fictions like text, movie and picture: Obviously, the claim is not that quasi-emotions play no causal role at all in our behavior, I argue that quasi-emotions lack the action tendencies that are characteristic of their genuine counterparts, and these differ individually and contextually. After reading a novel about a fictional psychopathic murderer, Anna might carefully check the locks at her main door, but her action tendencies would differ from the real-life situation.

Authors:
Verena Gottschling, York University, Canada

About the Presenter(s)
Professor Verena Gottschling is a University Associate Professor/Senior Lecturer at York University, Toronto in Canada

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https://gottschling-net.de/background.html

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