Enjoyment as Enriched Experience: A Theory of Affect and Its Relation to Consciousness

by Nathaniel F. Barrett

This book has two main (1) to call attention to the special challenges presented by our experience of affect―all varieties of pleasure and pain―and (2) to show how these challenges can be overcome by an “enrichment approach” that understands affect as the enrichment or deterioration of conscious activity as a whole. This “enrichment approach” draws from Alfred North Whitehead as well as the pragmatists John Dewey and William James, all of whom thought of affect as a fundamental aspect of experience rather than a special class of feelings. It also draws from recent scientific research that suggests that the dynamic repertoire of consciousness can change, effectively expanding and contracting our capacity to feel. Weaving these perspectives together, the book develops a theory that accounts for the peculiar phenomenology of affect and sheds new light on a diverse range of experiences, from everyday pleasures and pains to the special satisfactions of the arts and religious festivity. At the same time, it presents a fresh and distinctively affect-centered perspective on the nature of consciousness.

379 pages, Hardcover

Published February 23, 2023

Reviews

[Ashjay · Rating 5 out of 5]

I usually write reviews for the books I read but for this I think it will suffice to say that this book is atleast 30-50 years ahead of its time. That should say enough about this book than my own words can ever encompass.