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What Is an Emotion?: Classic and Contemporary Readings
What is an Emotion?, 2/e , draws together important selections from classical and contemporary theories and debates about emotion. Utilizing sources from a variety of subject areas including philosophy, psychology, and biology, editor Robert Solomon provides an illuminating look at the "affective" side of psychology and philosophy from the perspective of the world's great thinkers. Part One of the book features five classic readings from Aristotle, the Stoics, Descartes, Spinoza, and Hume. Part Two offers classic and contemporary theories from the social sciences, presenting selections from such thinkers as Charles Darwin and Sigmund Freud alongside recent work from Paul Ekman, Catherine Lutz, and others. Part Three presents some of the extensive work on emotion that developed in Europe over the past century. Part Four includes essays representing the discussion of emotions among British and American analytic philosophers. The volume is enhanced by a comprehensive introduction by
the editor and a multidisciplinary bibliography.
What is an Emotion? is appropriate for any course in which the nature of emotion plays a major role, including philosophy of emotion, philosophy of mind, history of psychology, emotion and motivation, moral psychology, and history and psychology of consciousness courses. The second edition provides much more material on emotions in the sciences and more from recent philosophical theories, encompassing recent shifts in theorizing on three the wealth of new information on the central nervous system and the brain; new developments in cross-cultural research and anthropology; and the recent emphasis on "cognition" in emotion, both in philosophy and the social sciences. New selections include work by Antonio Damasio, Ronald De Sousa, Paul Ekman, Nico Frijda, Patricia Greenspan, Paul Griffiths, Richard Lazarus, Catherine Lutz, Martha Nussbaum, and Michael Stocker.
the editor and a multidisciplinary bibliography.
What is an Emotion? is appropriate for any course in which the nature of emotion plays a major role, including philosophy of emotion, philosophy of mind, history of psychology, emotion and motivation, moral psychology, and history and psychology of consciousness courses. The second edition provides much more material on emotions in the sciences and more from recent philosophical theories, encompassing recent shifts in theorizing on three the wealth of new information on the central nervous system and the brain; new developments in cross-cultural research and anthropology; and the recent emphasis on "cognition" in emotion, both in philosophy and the social sciences. New selections include work by Antonio Damasio, Ronald De Sousa, Paul Ekman, Nico Frijda, Patricia Greenspan, Paul Griffiths, Richard Lazarus, Catherine Lutz, Martha Nussbaum, and Michael Stocker.
320 pages, Paperback
First published February 27, 2003
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About the author
Robert C. Solomon
124 books172 followersRobert C. Solomon (September 14, 1942 – January 2, 2007) was a professor of continental philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin.
Early life
Solomon was born in Detroit, Michigan. His father was a lawyer, and his mother an artist. After earning a B.A. (1963) at the University of Pennsylvania, he moved to the University of Michigan to study medicine, switching to philosophy for an M.A. (1965) and Ph.D. (1967).
He held several teaching positions at such schools as Princeton University, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Pittsburgh. From 1972 until his death, except for two years at the University of California at Riverside in the mid-1980s, he taught at University of Texas at Austin, serving as Quincy Lee Centennial Professor of Philosophy and Business. He was a member of the University of Texas Academy of Distinguished Teachers. Solomon was also a member of the inaugural class of Academic Advisors at the Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics.
His interests were in 19th-century German philosophy--especially Hegel and Nietzsche--and 20th-century Continental philosophy--especially Sartre and phenomenology, as well as ethics and the philosophy of emotions. Solomon published more than 40 books on philosophy, and was also a published songwriter. He made a cameo appearance in Richard Linklater's film Waking Life (2001), where he discussed the continuing relevance of existentialism in a postmodern world. He developed a cognitivist theory of the emotions, according to which emotions, like beliefs, were susceptible to rational appraisal and revision. Solomon was particularly interested in the idea of "love," arguing against the notion that romantic love is an inherent state of being, and maintaining, instead, that it is instead a construct of Western culture, popularized and propagated in such a way that it has achieved the status of a universal in the eyes of many. Love for Solomon is not a universal, static quality, but an emotion, subject to the same vicissitudes as other emotions like anger or sadness.
Solomon received numerous teaching awards at the University of Texas at Austin, and was a frequent lecturer in the highly regarded Plan II Honors Program. Solomon was known for his lectures on Nietzsche and other Existentialist philosophers. Solomon described in one lecture a very personal experience he had while a medical student at the University of Michigan. He recounted how he stumbled as if by chance into a crowded lecture hall. He was rather unhappy in his medical studies at the time, and was perhaps seeking something different that day. He got precisely that. The professor, Frithjof Bergmann, was lecturing that day on something that Solomon had not yet been acquainted with. The professor spoke of how Nietzsche's idea asks the fundamental question: "If given the opportunity to live your life over and over again ad infinitum, forced to go through all of the pain and the grief of existence, would you be overcome with despair? Or would you fall to your knees in gratitude?"
Solomon died on January 2, 2007 at Zurich airport. His wife, philosopher Kathleen Higgins, with whom he co-authored several of his books, is Professor of Philosophy at University of Texas at Austin.
Early life
Solomon was born in Detroit, Michigan. His father was a lawyer, and his mother an artist. After earning a B.A. (1963) at the University of Pennsylvania, he moved to the University of Michigan to study medicine, switching to philosophy for an M.A. (1965) and Ph.D. (1967).
He held several teaching positions at such schools as Princeton University, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Pittsburgh. From 1972 until his death, except for two years at the University of California at Riverside in the mid-1980s, he taught at University of Texas at Austin, serving as Quincy Lee Centennial Professor of Philosophy and Business. He was a member of the University of Texas Academy of Distinguished Teachers. Solomon was also a member of the inaugural class of Academic Advisors at the Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics.
His interests were in 19th-century German philosophy--especially Hegel and Nietzsche--and 20th-century Continental philosophy--especially Sartre and phenomenology, as well as ethics and the philosophy of emotions. Solomon published more than 40 books on philosophy, and was also a published songwriter. He made a cameo appearance in Richard Linklater's film Waking Life (2001), where he discussed the continuing relevance of existentialism in a postmodern world. He developed a cognitivist theory of the emotions, according to which emotions, like beliefs, were susceptible to rational appraisal and revision. Solomon was particularly interested in the idea of "love," arguing against the notion that romantic love is an inherent state of being, and maintaining, instead, that it is instead a construct of Western culture, popularized and propagated in such a way that it has achieved the status of a universal in the eyes of many. Love for Solomon is not a universal, static quality, but an emotion, subject to the same vicissitudes as other emotions like anger or sadness.
Solomon received numerous teaching awards at the University of Texas at Austin, and was a frequent lecturer in the highly regarded Plan II Honors Program. Solomon was known for his lectures on Nietzsche and other Existentialist philosophers. Solomon described in one lecture a very personal experience he had while a medical student at the University of Michigan. He recounted how he stumbled as if by chance into a crowded lecture hall. He was rather unhappy in his medical studies at the time, and was perhaps seeking something different that day. He got precisely that. The professor, Frithjof Bergmann, was lecturing that day on something that Solomon had not yet been acquainted with. The professor spoke of how Nietzsche's idea asks the fundamental question: "If given the opportunity to live your life over and over again ad infinitum, forced to go through all of the pain and the grief of existence, would you be overcome with despair? Or would you fall to your knees in gratitude?"
Solomon died on January 2, 2007 at Zurich airport. His wife, philosopher Kathleen Higgins, with whom he co-authored several of his books, is Professor of Philosophy at University of Texas at Austin.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 15, 2024
In pursuit of my interest in the philosophy of emotions, I have read several of Solomon’s books, namely “Passions” and “Thinking about Feeling.” The latter was a collection of readings by contemporary philosophers. The current book, “What Is an Emotion?” is a set of classical readings on emotion. As such it contains selections from Aristotle and the Stoics, through Spinoza and Hume, as well as the well known views of Darwin and James. Scientists are included such as Freud and Damasio, as well as representatives of continental philosophy such as Heidegger and Sartre. The book is an excellent review of the history of thought about emotions.
There are surprises. Speaking of what is probably the best known theory of emotions, Freud comments, “What psychology has to say about affects – the James-Lange theory, for instance – is utterly incomprehensible to us psychoanalysts.” So the views run the gamut of possibilities. Much of the discussion pertains to whether emotions should be analyzed as similar to cognition, knowing something, or as similar to sensation, feeling something, or as some combination thereof. A Phenomenologist such as Heidegger makes emotion central to all of our interaction with the world by arguing that to engage with the world, we have to care about something.
I can’t react to all of the readings, so I will choose just one more, an essay by Martha Nussbaum. On the issue of whether emotion is a cognition or a subjective feeling, she uses the personal example of her learning of the medical condition of her mother approaching death, while she herself is overseas. She describes her distress and her concern about her mother’s condition, and her fear that she might lose her mother, who is very important to her. She concludes with the thesis that the emotion can all be boiled down to judgements, such as that she may lose her mother and that her mother is very important to her. Though she makes a strong case, this seems to me to be a rather bloodless conclusion. Nussbaum could make her judgements without any strong feeling about them, in which case they could hardly be called emotional.
I may reread this book, just as I did the last of Solomon’s books, because it makes me as well versed in the philosophy of emotion as I can hope to be. Solomon himself (who died in 2007) is perhaps the most accomplished philosopher of emotion of recent times.
There are surprises. Speaking of what is probably the best known theory of emotions, Freud comments, “What psychology has to say about affects – the James-Lange theory, for instance – is utterly incomprehensible to us psychoanalysts.” So the views run the gamut of possibilities. Much of the discussion pertains to whether emotions should be analyzed as similar to cognition, knowing something, or as similar to sensation, feeling something, or as some combination thereof. A Phenomenologist such as Heidegger makes emotion central to all of our interaction with the world by arguing that to engage with the world, we have to care about something.
I can’t react to all of the readings, so I will choose just one more, an essay by Martha Nussbaum. On the issue of whether emotion is a cognition or a subjective feeling, she uses the personal example of her learning of the medical condition of her mother approaching death, while she herself is overseas. She describes her distress and her concern about her mother’s condition, and her fear that she might lose her mother, who is very important to her. She concludes with the thesis that the emotion can all be boiled down to judgements, such as that she may lose her mother and that her mother is very important to her. Though she makes a strong case, this seems to me to be a rather bloodless conclusion. Nussbaum could make her judgements without any strong feeling about them, in which case they could hardly be called emotional.
I may reread this book, just as I did the last of Solomon’s books, because it makes me as well versed in the philosophy of emotion as I can hope to be. Solomon himself (who died in 2007) is perhaps the most accomplished philosopher of emotion of recent times.
March 24, 2023
Interesting concept but too technical to be enjoyed in leisure.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews