PHIL 1361 Test 3 Review Questions with Correct Answers Latest Update 2025/2026
Be familiar with the behavioral theory, local quality theory, and arousal model. - Answers look at
the google doc with the picture
How do these views connect human emotions to art? - Answers - Behavioral theory : Sircello
argues that in creating an artwork, one leaves traces of one's inner state in that work. In this way,
artworks are very much like our own behaviour. The source of emotion is the artist's emotions
when creating the work and the audience recognizes that.
- Problems : A person's apparent behavior can be divorced from her actual mental states
- Local Quality Theory : The emotion is tied to a resemblance between the work and human
expressive behavior. The audience then recognizes that resemblance and ascribes the emotion
without directly feeling it.
- Problems : There is the question of whether the resemblance features in the experience itself
(that is, if it is a perceived resemblance), or whether it simply is that which causes the
experience
- Arousal Model : The source of emotion is solely based on what the audience's emotional
response
- We tie the words we use to describe a(n) artwork to real emotion in the audience and disregard
the emotions of the creator
What are the premises to the paradox of fiction and what issue does the paradox highlight? -
Answers 1) We believe the objects of our emotions exist.
2) We know that fictional objects do not exist.
3) We sometimes have extreme emotional reactions to fiction
To resolve the paradox, we must choose one of the premises to say it is false.
The existence of the paradox means that not all of them can exist together.
Why is "suspension of disbelief" an unsatisfactory response to the paradox of fiction? - Answers
, - Suspending disbelief means to 'willingly put oneself in a position of uncertainty regarding the
truth of the story'.
- This can't work, since suspension of disbelief is supposed to work when we know that a work
is fictional.
- Doesn't account for when someone genuinely doesn't know that a work is fictional
- While we know that the events are not happening, we 'believe' that they are happening.
- This would be irrational and doesn't seem to fit with how we engage with fiction
- Disproves paradox of fiction
What are first and second-order beliefs, and how do they resolve the paradox of fiction? -
Answers - Schaper thinks what we are really doing is not putting aside our beliefs, but we
compound beliefs.
- First-order beliefs: Beliefs about the work's fictional nature.
- Beliefs about our world.
- Second-order beliefs: Beliefs about the story being told.
- Beliefs about the world of the story.
- Second-order beliefs depend upon certain first-order beliefs
` Because we can have true second-order beliefs, we can resolve the paradox by denying the
second premise, that fictional objects do not exist.
-fictional objects do exist but exist as fictional characters (different senses of existence)
What are quasi-emotions? - Answers - Emotions that we feel when we engage with art.
Why are quasi-emotions not real emotions? - Answers - When we think we feel emotions when
engaged with fiction, we are not really feeling those emotions.
- We feel these quasi-states when we imagine ourselves in the story.
- Quasi-emotions are not real emotions, because they are only 'make-believedly' true.
Be familiar with how Novitz criticizes both Schaper and Walton's response to the paradox of
fiction as well as Novitz's own response. - Answers - First and Second order beliefs: Schaper's
view would require us to continually keep in mind our first-order beliefs in order to hold specific
Be familiar with the behavioral theory, local quality theory, and arousal model. - Answers look at
the google doc with the picture
How do these views connect human emotions to art? - Answers - Behavioral theory : Sircello
argues that in creating an artwork, one leaves traces of one's inner state in that work. In this way,
artworks are very much like our own behaviour. The source of emotion is the artist's emotions
when creating the work and the audience recognizes that.
- Problems : A person's apparent behavior can be divorced from her actual mental states
- Local Quality Theory : The emotion is tied to a resemblance between the work and human
expressive behavior. The audience then recognizes that resemblance and ascribes the emotion
without directly feeling it.
- Problems : There is the question of whether the resemblance features in the experience itself
(that is, if it is a perceived resemblance), or whether it simply is that which causes the
experience
- Arousal Model : The source of emotion is solely based on what the audience's emotional
response
- We tie the words we use to describe a(n) artwork to real emotion in the audience and disregard
the emotions of the creator
What are the premises to the paradox of fiction and what issue does the paradox highlight? -
Answers 1) We believe the objects of our emotions exist.
2) We know that fictional objects do not exist.
3) We sometimes have extreme emotional reactions to fiction
To resolve the paradox, we must choose one of the premises to say it is false.
The existence of the paradox means that not all of them can exist together.
Why is "suspension of disbelief" an unsatisfactory response to the paradox of fiction? - Answers
, - Suspending disbelief means to 'willingly put oneself in a position of uncertainty regarding the
truth of the story'.
- This can't work, since suspension of disbelief is supposed to work when we know that a work
is fictional.
- Doesn't account for when someone genuinely doesn't know that a work is fictional
- While we know that the events are not happening, we 'believe' that they are happening.
- This would be irrational and doesn't seem to fit with how we engage with fiction
- Disproves paradox of fiction
What are first and second-order beliefs, and how do they resolve the paradox of fiction? -
Answers - Schaper thinks what we are really doing is not putting aside our beliefs, but we
compound beliefs.
- First-order beliefs: Beliefs about the work's fictional nature.
- Beliefs about our world.
- Second-order beliefs: Beliefs about the story being told.
- Beliefs about the world of the story.
- Second-order beliefs depend upon certain first-order beliefs
` Because we can have true second-order beliefs, we can resolve the paradox by denying the
second premise, that fictional objects do not exist.
-fictional objects do exist but exist as fictional characters (different senses of existence)
What are quasi-emotions? - Answers - Emotions that we feel when we engage with art.
Why are quasi-emotions not real emotions? - Answers - When we think we feel emotions when
engaged with fiction, we are not really feeling those emotions.
- We feel these quasi-states when we imagine ourselves in the story.
- Quasi-emotions are not real emotions, because they are only 'make-believedly' true.
Be familiar with how Novitz criticizes both Schaper and Walton's response to the paradox of
fiction as well as Novitz's own response. - Answers - First and Second order beliefs: Schaper's
view would require us to continually keep in mind our first-order beliefs in order to hold specific
