Cognizioni, affetti, giudizi: un resoconto problematico

What role do affective states play in cognition? In this work, we use contemporary cognitive research to address this question. We first define emotions with respect to the much wider class of affective states, showing how each of them can affect our judgement. We then describe a poorly investigated subclass of affective states called “epistemic feelings”, which make a particularly strong impact on our thinking processes. We then turn to consider a subclinical condition, “alexithymia”, characterized by an inability to perceive real emotions. Alexithymics have normal intelligence, however they have impaired awareness of their own emotions. By analyzing the skills alexithymics preserve and the difficulties they face, we show that numerous fundamental social skills – for understanding, evaluating and judging human behavior – rely deeply on emotions.