This commentary challenges Railton’s claim that the affective system is the key source of control of action. Whilst the affective system is important for understanding how acting for a reason is possible, we argue that there are many levels of control of action and adaptive behaviour and that the affective system is only one source of control. Such a model seems to be more in line with the emerging picture from affective and movement neuroscience.
AnscombeG. E. M. (1957). Intention. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
2.
BlakemoreR. L.VuilleumierP. (2017). An emotional call to action: Integrating affective neuroscience in models of motor control. Emotion Review, 9 (4): 299–309.
3.
BlanchardD. C.HyndA. L.MinkeK. A.MinemotoT.BlanchardR. J. (2001). Human defensive behaviors to threat scenarios show parallels to fear- and anxiety-related defense patterns of non-human mammals. Neuroscience and Biobehavioural Reviews, 25, 761–770.
4.
BradleyM. M.CodispotiM.CuthbertB. N.LangP. J. (2001). Emotion and motivation I: Defensive and appetitive reactions to picture processing. Emotion, 1, 276–298.
5.
ButterfillS. A.SinigagliaC. (2014). Intention and motor representation in purposive action. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 88(1), 119–145.
6.
DavidsonD. (1980). Essays on actions and events. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
7.
FrankfurtH. G. (1978). The problem of action. American Philosophical Quarterly, 15(2), 157–162.
8.
HornsbyJ. (2013). Basic activity. Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume, 87(1), 1–18.
9.
JeannerodM. (2006). Motor cognition: What actions tell the self. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
10.
LangP. J.BradleyM. M.CuthbertB. N. (1997). Motivated attention: Affect, activation and action. In LangP. J.SimonsR. F.BalabanM. T. (Eds.), Attention and orienting: Sensory and motivational processes (pp. 97–136). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
11.
RailtonP. (2017). At the core of our capacity to act for a reason: The affective system and dynamic model-based learning and control. Emotion Review, 9 (4): 335–342.
12.
RidderinkhofR. (2017). Emotion in action: A predictive processing perspective and theoretical synthesis. Emotion Review, 9 (4): 319–325.
13.
ThompsonM. (2008). Life and action: Elementary structures of practice and practical thought. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
14.
VoglerC. A. (2002). Reasonably vicious. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.