Emotions, 'Phantasia' and Feeling in Aristotle's Rhetoric

Abstract

Over the past three decades, philosophy has seen a remarkable revival of interest in the concept of emotion and with it a reassessment of the role of the pathê in the work of Aristotle. Quite a number of scholars claim him as the first philosopher to defend a cognitive approach in emotion theory. I will argue that this claim is one-sided and that his discussions of the passions differ markedly from contemporary cognitive views of emotion.