There is no consensus in the literature on a definition of emotion. The term is taken for granted in itself and, most often, emotion is defined with reference to a list: anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, and surprise. This article expands on a thesis that motivational states can be compared to each other by means of a common currency (McFarland and Sibly 1975). I have previously argued that this common currency is pleasure. Such a conclusion is based not on introspective intuition, as with early pre-scientific psychology (Mill 1869), but on experimental methods. As a follow-up to a definition of consciousness (Cabanac 1996) as a four-dimensional experience (quality, intensity, hedonicity, and duration), I propose here that emotion is any mental experience with h i g h intensity and high hedonic content (pleasure/displeasure)