Perception, emotion and action Book

In an attempt to achieve a clearer understanding of perception, emotion, and action, Thalberg begins by accepting at face value twelve lively but puzzling controversies about these phenomena. Each debate concerns the relationship between an event which seems to be in some mysterious way involved with perception, emotion, or action. What unifies Thalberg's investigation of these conceptual problems, and his appraisal of the arguments on both sides, is that they all appear amenable to a "component" analysis. Thalberg proposes to treat each debated occurrence as an event-component, which partly constitutes perception, emotion, or action. While other writers have deployed "component" terminology, Thalberg elaborates the notion of componency and develops it beyond what others have done – and along original lines. Quite apart from the sort of philosophical analysis they generate, the riddles treated here provide challenging intellectual exercises for anyone who is curious about the relationship between seeing and the brain processes which are indispensable to it; between our emotions and the thinking on which they are somehow "based"; between our action and the reasons why we perform it; and between our "basic" or bodily actions, and the other things we do by moving our bodies. -excerpt from back cover of 1977 paperback edition