Cognition and Emotion

Distinguish levels of inquiry, then examine how thought represents objects and situations.

1. 01

   Philosophy, Cognition, and Psychology: Concepts, Minds, and Behavior

   Philosophy examines concepts and standards, cognition names the processes that make understanding possible, and psychology studies those processes in living beings.

   17 min read
2. 02

   Human Thinking: Representation, Reasoning, and Action

   Thinking is more than inner speech or formal logic. It uses concepts, images, memory, emotion, bodily states, and external tools to build judgments, imagine possibilities, and guide action.

   14 min read
3. 03

   Mental Representation: How Minds Carry Content

   Mental representations are content-bearing states involved in perception, memory, imagination, reasoning, and action. This essay examines their targets, vehicles, formats, errors, and philosophical limits.

   12 min read

Compare the roles of representation, explanation, prediction, and judgment.

1. 01

   Human Thinking: Representation, Reasoning, and Action

   Thinking is more than inner speech or formal logic. It uses concepts, images, memory, emotion, bodily states, and external tools to build judgments, imagine possibilities, and guide action.

   14 min read
2. 02

   Mental Models: Representation, Prediction, and Action

   Mental models simplify situations so that we can understand and simulate them. This article separates representation, explanation, inference, prediction, decision, and feedback models.

   13 min read
3. 03

   Conceptual and Logical Thinking: From Classification to Action

   Conceptual thinking organizes classifications and logical thinking constrains inference. This essay maps perception, causation, probability, creativity, criticism, systems, strategy, decision, and metacognition.

   15 min read

Place emotion within cognition, then separate experience, interpretation, and stance.

1. 01

   Human Thinking: Representation, Reasoning, and Action

   Thinking is more than inner speech or formal logic. It uses concepts, images, memory, emotion, bodily states, and external tools to build judgments, imagine possibilities, and guide action.

   14 min read
2. 02

   Emotion: Feeling, Appraisal, and Readiness to Act

   What is an emotion, how is it classified, and how does it develop? An account of feeling, mood, appraisal, bodily response, competing theories, rationality, and action.

   17 min read
3. 03

   Facts, Opinions, and Stances: Description, Judgment, and Action

   A conceptual guide to the difference between what is the case, what someone judges, and how someone is oriented to respond.

   14 min read