# The Experience of Emotion An Intentional **Opening (not a real abstract):** The Experience of Emotion: An Intentionalist Theory The experience of emotion is a fundamental part of human consciousness. Think, for example, of how different our conscious lives would be without such experiences as joy, anger, fear, disgust, pity, anxiety, and embarrassment. It is uncontroversial that these experiences typically have an intentional content. Anger, for example, is normally directed at someone or something. One may feel angry at one=s stock broker for providing bad advice or angry with the cleaning lady for dropping the vase. But it is not uncontroversial that emotional experiences are always intentional. John Searle, for example, remarks, AMany conscious states are not Intentional, e.g., a sudden sense of elation . . .@ (1983, p. 2). Moreover, many animals experience emotions and it is natural to suppose that such emotions lack the sophistication of beliefs or thoughts. When a dog experiences delight in seeing its master after an absence of several days, the suggesti **Authors:** [[Tye]]