The Feeling Body

This philosophical work offers a groundbreaking extension of the enactive approach to affective science, proposing that our emotions, moods, and feelings are not merely reactions but fundamental, embodied aspects of cognition itself. Colombetti masterfully bridges cognitive science and philosophy of mind, arguing that the feeling body is not a passive vessel for emotions but an active, constitutive participant in our mental life. This perspective challenges traditional boundaries between thinking and feeling, presenting a unified vision of the mind as inherently affective.

The book's distinctive strength lies in its systematic application of enactivism to the complex terrain of human emotion, making a compelling case for why our physical being is inseparable from our emotional experience. Readers with a background in philosophy of mind, cognitive science, or psychology will find this a transformative text that reshapes understanding of what it means to feel. By placing the lived, feeling body at the center of cognition, this work ultimately redefines the landscape of affective science.