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What is the depressive mood, as a symptom of depression? We draw on the contemporary analytic philosophy of moods to propose a theory of depressive mood, following an approach empirically informed by psychopathology and psychiatry. We move away from a conception of depressive mood as a pure mental disposition, and as an intentional mental state with evaluative intentionality, to define it as an occurring affective state with a distinctive phenomenology and a functional role, that of engendering and reinforcing a network of depressive beliefs.