Nico Frijda writes that emotions are governed by a psychological principle called the “law of apparent reality”: emotions are elicited only by events appraised as real, and the intensity of these emotions corresponds to the degree to which these events are appraised as real.
Topic
The relationship between emotional responses and reality, especially in the context of responses to works of art.
Framework
Challenge Position
Main Point
Although Frijda’s “law of apparent reality” claims that emotions are only triggered by things appraised as real, our emotional reactions to art show that people can feel strong emotions even when they know something isn’t real—posing a problem for Frijda’s explanation. (The "Most Valuable Sentence" that best captures the main point appears towards the end of paragraph 2: )
P1: Introduction of Frijda’s Law / The Puzzle
Frijda claims that we only have emotional reactions to things we think are real, but emotional reactions to art seem to go against this idea.
P2: Examples Where Frijda’s Law Struggles
The author lays out several situations where people feel emotions from things they know aren’t real, like movies or music, arguing that this doesn’t fit with Frijda’s theory—since we still get scared or moved, even when we know it's all fake.
P3: Other Theories and Ongoing Debate
The paragraph describes how other psychologists handle this problem: some suggest aesthetic emotions are “different," while others say they're fake versions of real feelings, or insist that real emotions just don’t make sense here. All these debates show that Frijda’s law doesn’t solve the problem.