II—MITCHELL GREEN

PERCEIVING EMOTIONS

I argue that it is possible literally to perceive the emotions of others. This

account depends upon the possibility of perceiving a whole by perceiving
one or more of its parts, and upon the view that emotions are complexes.
After developing this account, I expound and reply to Rowland Stout’s
challenge to it. Stout is nevertheless sympathetic with the perceivability-
of-emotions view. I thus scrutinize Stout’s suggestion for a better defence
of that view than I have provided, and offer a refinement of my own pro-
posal that incorporates some of his insights.

Introduction. Ivan Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons contains a passage

in which a mother gazes at her imposing but nihilistic son:

She was afraid to caress Bazarov, and he gave her no encouragement,

for he did nothing to invite her caresses; and besides, Vassily Ivanovi-
ch had advised her not to ‘disturb’ him too much … But Arina
Vlasyevna’s eyes, looking steadfastly at Bazarov, expressed not devo-
tion and tenderness alone, for sorrow was visible in them also, min-
gled with curiosity and fear, with a trace of humble reproachfulness.
(Turgenev 1948, p. 152)

Leaving aside the question whether Arina Vlasyevna could show so

many emotions at once, it is clear that Turgenev intends his readers
not to be surprised by the suggestion that an emotion like sorrow
could be visible in a person’s eyes. More generally, we often say such
things as that we could see the anxiety on someone’s face, feel the
trepidation in her handshake, and hear the exuberance in her voice.
In Self-Expression, I mention this aspect of common sense, as well
as cite novelists as diverse as Turgenev and Amy Tan, the painter Al-
berti, and Charles Darwin as all describing emotions as being per-
ceptible. Yet even if common sense carries a presumption in its
favour, it is notoriously fallible, and neither Turgenev, Tan, Alberti

©2010 The Aristotelian Society

Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume lxxxiv
doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8349.2010.00185.x