Abstract

A prominent version of emotional cognitivism has it that emotions are preceded by awareness of value. Jonathan Mitchell [-@mitchell_jo:2019a] has recently attacked this view (which he calls the content-priority view) on the ground that extant suggestions for the relevant type of pre-emotional evaluative awareness are all problematic. Unless these problems can be overcome, he argues, the view does not represent a plausible competitor to rivalling cognitivist views. As Mitchell supposes, the content-priority view is not mandatory since its core motivations can be accommodated by competing views. I argue that Mitchell misconceives the view’s principal motivation. Properly reconstructed, this motivation provides a strong case for its indispensability to an adequate cognitivist treatment of emotion. Moreover, Mitchell’s survey of candidates for pre-emotional value awareness can be seen to rest on contestable assumptions.