Meaning and Affect

Charles Starkey, Clemson University

Introduction

One of the more compelling aspects of our existence is the phenomenon of meaning. Here I am referring to meaning not in the in the sense of interpretive understanding, but rather meaning in the sense of a meaningful life and things that constitute such a meaningful life. Many theories of meaning hold that meaning is found in some sort of subjective state, so that what unites meaningful activities as diverse as Richard Branson's around-the-world balloon flight and raising a family or sustaining friendships is something like a feeling, desire, or belief. However, subjective accounts of meaning have not engaged in a systematic analysis of the subjective state or presented a sustained argument for why meaning is found in that particular state and not some other type of subjective state. Moreover, recent philosophical discussion of the importance of emotions has largely focused on their role in empathetic understanding and behavior. Here, it is emotions that enable us to understand other people and act in line with that understanding (see Stocker "How"; Nussbaum). In psychology, much of the attention has focused on the relationship between emotion and action, and most recently on the effects of emotion on attention and reason (Arnold; Frijda; Damasio; LeDoux). Little has been said about the role, if any, of emotion in meaning. My aim is to remedy this by examining the subjective component of meaning to reveal how emotions play a fundamental role in the meaningfulness of activities in our lives. I contend that emotions are essential to meaning because they are constitutive of two separate subjective states that are necessary for meaning. This provides a way of understanding the particular subjective responses upon which meaning depends.