Part II: Identity Thesis

Affects as Structural Motifs

Introduction

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Affects as Structural Motifs

If different experiences correspond to different structures, then affects—the qualitative character of emotional/valenced states—should correspond to particular structural motifs: characteristic patterns in the cause-effect geometry. An affect is what it is because of how it relates to other possible affects. Joy is defined by its structural distance from suffering, its similarity to curiosity along certain axes, its opposition to boredom along others. The Yoneda insight applies: if you know how an affect relates to every other possible state, you know the affect. There is nothing left to characterize.

The affect space $\mathcal{A}$ is a geometric space whose points correspond to possible qualitative states. Its dimensionality is not fixed in advance. Rather than asserting a universal coordinate system, we identify recurring structural features that prove useful for characterizing and comparing affects—features without which specific affects would not be those affects. Different affects invoke different subsets. The list is open-ended.

These measures are coordinates on the relational structure, not the structure itself. The relational structure is what the Yoneda characterization captures: the full pattern of similarities and differences between affects. The measures below are projections—tools for reading out particular aspects of that structure. Measuring valence tells you where an affect sits along the viability gradient; measuring integration tells you how unified it is. Neither alone captures the affect. Together, they triangulate a position in a space whose intrinsic geometry is defined by the similarity relations, not by the coordinates. New coordinates can be added when the existing ones fail to distinguish affects that are experientially distinct.

The following structural measures recur across many affects. Not all are relevant to every phenomenon:

Valence ( $\valence$ ): Gradient alignment on the viability manifold. Nearly universal—most affects have valence.
Arousal ( $\arousal$ ): Rate of belief/state update. Distinguishes activated from quiescent states.
Integration ( $\intinfo$ ): Irreducibility of cause-effect structure. Constitutive for unified vs. fragmented experience.
Effective Rank ( $\effrank$ ): Distribution of active degrees of freedom. Constitutive when the contrast between expansive and collapsed experience matters.
Counterfactual Weight ( $\mathcal{CF}$ ): Resources allocated to non-actual trajectories. Constitutive for affects defined by temporal orientation (anticipation, regret, planning).
Self-Model Salience ( $\mathcal{SM}$ ): Degree of self-focus in processing. Constitutive for self-conscious emotions and their opposites (absorption, flow).