The Expected Fittingness Maximisation Theory of Emotional Rationality

Arturs Logins (Université Laval)

According to an increasingly popular view, emotional attitudes can be properly rational or irrational. One prominent line of thought holds that the rationality of emotions is tied to their representation of the evaluative profile of a given situation. However, this view requires regimentation, given the overlooked behavior of emotional rationality under uncertainty and quasi-certainty, as well as its comparative nature. This paper provides that regimentation by deploying decision-theoretic tools and focusing on fittingness as the fundamental value in the emotional domain. The resulting account is the theory of emotional rationality as expected fittingness maximization.