Evolutionary Theories of Emotion in Italian Psychophysiology: Reception, Critique, and Influence, 1880-1920

This article examines how Italian psychophysiologists engaged with Charles Darwin's evolutionary theory of the emotions (ETE) between 1880 and 1920. Darwin's work on the natural history of emotions converged with a vibrant tradition of experimental psychophysiology that embodied Italian Positivism's scientific ambitions. The article investigates how the reception of Darwin's ETE in post-unification Italy intersected with the local construction of "emotion" as a physiological and experimental object. It first traces the dissemination of Darwin's ideas through key venues such as the Rivista di Filosofia Scientifica, which mediated between evolutionary biology and emerging psychological research. It then examines how Italian researchers operationalized emotion as a physiological object, employing experimental methods to study its somatic expressions. Finally, it analyzes the critiques directed at Darwin's model-particularly its limited account of autonomic functions and its reliance on historical reconstructions-and shows how these reflected a shift toward anatomo-functional approaches and disciplinary autonomy.