The role of emotions in moral behavior has been debated by ethicists since ancient Greece. The scientific study of emotions is much more recent, yet the advances in twenty-first century understanding of the neural mechanisms that subserve emotions take on added meaning in the context of these ancient debates. New developments in emotional technologies add further nuances to these old questions. This entry provides a brief account of what emotions are, outlines the way emotions have been viewed in some major philosophical traditions, and discusses the ethical questions raised by some forms of technology.

What Are Emotions?

Emotions may be defined in a number of ways (Evans 2001). From a neurobiological perspective, emotions are defined in terms of the neural mechanisms that implement emotional processes in the brains of humans and other animals. In all mammals most emotional processes are mediated by a set of neural structures known collectively...