JAMES AND THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF EMOTION - A COMMENT ON ELLSWORTH

It is argued that P. Ellsworth's (1994) interpretation of William Jame s's theory of emotions is not supported by his writings. On the basis of textual evidence and systematic considerations, the authors try to show that, in line with the traditional view, James's theory holds tha t emotions are identical with feelings of bodily changes, of which aut onomic changes are by far the most important ones (i.e., the only ones necessary and sufficient for emotions). Furthermore, the authors argu e that James's question of the temporal priority of emotions versus bo dily feelings makes good sense even if one acknowledges that these eve nts usually show temporal overlap.