ABSTRACT
Basic emotion theory (BET) represents an affective development over automaticity, but is highly contested. There is no consensus on how many or how basic emotions are. However, there remains a question of ground and function. These are best addressed, in my view, through Plutchik (including his interpreters) and Panksepp, which I propose to analyse in detail. I again emphasise: the attention to ‘grounds’ is not a reductionist tactic but an examination of heterochronic expression and development. If social phenomena presume such grounds, they cannot remain untheorised: whilst they predate conscious action, they can be said to influence those processes.
