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Re: [xmca] Generalization Is Not Abstraction Again
Hi, all,
My contribution may not keep with the pace of the thread, but I'd like to react to something that Martin said:
> Ekman sees these movements as innate and universal. It's fascinating work, I just don't think it's the whole story, by a long way. It's rather like saying that by examining the movements of lips, tongue and glottis I can identify each of the words of English (or perhaps all languages if you want to be universal). Unfortunately this tells me nothing about the semantics or pragmatics of speech.
I agree that Ekman's work is fascinating. And it is, among other things, because it taps, not into the semantics of emotions, but into their syntax, if I may use the expression. That is, into the patterned way in which or through which (I'm not sure) basic emotions are expressed or rather embodied. I don't think Ekman has ever shoot for an explanation of pragmatics, and not certainly for an account of the distinct languages of emotion (and that's one limitation, certainly). But I don't think Martin's analogy to language acknowledges the specificity of Ekman's work or at least pretended research goals. I can't imagine him asserting that from the lips movements you can derive a fully fleshed semantics of language or for that matter of emotions.
Jorge
Jorge Larreamendy-Joerns, Ph.D.
Profesor Asociado y Director
Departamento de Psicología
Universidad de los Andes
On Jul 7, 2010, at 6:09 PM, Steve Gabosch wrote:
>> Ekman sees these movements as innate and universal. It's fascinating work, I just don't think it's the whole story, by a long way. It's rather like saying that by examining the movements of lips, tongue and glottis I can identify each of the words of English (or perhaps all languages if you want to be universal). Unfortunately this tells me nothing about the semantics or pragmatics of speech.
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