Ur-Emotions and Your Emotions

Reconceptualizing Basic Emotion

Bibliographic Data

ID5771882
AuthorsW Gerrod Parrott (Georgetown University, corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume2
Issue1
Pages14-21
Publication date2009-12-21
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEmotion Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1754-0739 • E-ISSN: 1754-0747
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1754073909345547
OpenAlexW2140392999
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited23

The term ur-emotion is proposed to replace basic emotion as a name for the aspects of emotion that underlie perceived similarities of emotion types across cultures and species. The ur- prefix is borrowed from the German on analogy to similar borrowings in textual criticism and musicology. The proposed term ur-emotion is less likely to be interpreted as referring to the entirety of an emotional state than is the term basic emotion. Ur-emotion avoids reductionism by indicating an abstract underlying structure that accounts for similarities between emotions without implying that the differences are unimportant. This article is dedicated to the memory of Bob Solomon, and is framed in terms of his decades-long analysis and critique of the concept of basic emotions

Causality · Reductionism · Emotions and Moral Behavior · Humor Studies and Applications · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition

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