DOI: Crossref DOI pending · Also available as 10.5281/zenodo.23676662
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@techreport{cezjah2026wp06,
author = {C{\'e}zjah},
title = {Emotional Constructivism: Agentic Redesign of the Architecture of Emotional Meaning},
institution = {New Intellectual LLC},
address = {Miami, FL},
type = {Working paper},
number = {6},
year = {2026},
month = {oct},
url = {https://newintellectual.com/pages/how-to-design-an-emotion-wp-06},
note = {Crossref DOI pending. Also available as https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23676662}
}Abstract
If agents construct their emotions, can they construct different ones on purpose? I present Emotional Constructivism (EC): rational agents construct emotional meaning rather than discover it in bodily states, and they can intentionally challenge their automatic emotional constructions by redesigning the evaluative and interpretive architecture under which they construct emotions. EC builds on the Constructivist Semiotic Model of Emotions, which separates physiological affect, feeling, and emotion and locates emotional meaning in an agent’s interpretive commitment under a goal. I set out two architectures. The Emotional Constructivism Prototype models the intrapersonal case: an Observer State in which the agent suspends commitment and calibrates her evaluative architecture, interventions that modify the conditions of construction without producing emotion, and a first-person binding resolution through which the agent alone commits to an emotion concept and marks it with an identifier. The Emotional Constructivism Stereotype models the interpersonal case: a consented cooperation under a shared goal and reciprocal value, in which another agent can assist but never commit for the individual. A worked case of bereavement runs through both. I place Emotional Granularity, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy inside the architecture as constraints on interpretation, and I answer the objections the book anticipates.
Contents
- 1. Introduction: From Construction to Redesign
- 2. The Position
- 3. Four Approaches as Constraints on Interpretation
- 4. The Emotional Constructivism Prototype
- 5. The Emotional Constructivism Stereotype
- 6. Objections and Replies
- 7. What Is Shared and What Is New
- 8. Scope and Limits
- 9. Conclusion
- Appendix: Diagrams
- References
Relation to the book
This paper restates, in new prose, the Emotional Constructivism of Chapter 9 and its practical implementation in Appendix M of How to Design an Emotion (Cézjah 2026, chap. 9, app. M). The book is the full treatment.
Record
- Emotional Constructivism
- emotional redesign
- binding resolution
- Observer State
- Emotional Granularity
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
- Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
- emotion regulation
- therapeutic alliance
- shared decision making
- bereavement
- agency
- Constructivist Semiotics
- Constructivist Semiotic Sign
- Constructivist Semiotic Model of Emotions
- Theory of Constrained Identity
- Emotionese
- Emotional Meaning Architecture
- Constructivist Linguistics of Emotion
- misattribution
- affect, feeling, and emotion
- theory of emotion
- concept theory
- semiotics
- affective science
- philosophy of emotion
- affective neuroscience
- social and affective neuroscience
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