Abstract
The study of emotion has always been a difficult and controversial subject. The main reason seems to be that in spite of the many years of investigation and the abundance of studies aiming at understanding human emotions, virtually no consensus could be reached. In this paper we argue that there are fundamental underlying problems and that a radically different approach is needed. We propose a new one, called the “New Fungus Eater Approach”. It is illustrated by experiments with autonomous robots, the “New Fungus Eaters”, which are named after their predecessor, the “Solitary Fungus Eater” invented by Masanao Toda in 1961. This approach is outlined and it is demonstrated how it can contribute to understanding the foundations of what one might want to call emotional processes. It is also discussed how some of the basic controversies “disappear” in this way.
