On Emotions: Philosophical Essays

This volume brings together philosophical essays on emotions by eleven leading thinkers in the field. The essays cover a variety of topics that relate emotions to humor, opera, theater, justice, war, death, our intellectual life, authenticity, personal identity, self-knowledge, and science. Several break new ground in the field. Others extend and deepen work for which their authors are well-known. All but two of the essays are new. Contributors include Noel Carroll, Martha Nussbaum, Paul Woodruff, Laurence Thomas, Kathleen Higgins, Michael Stocker, Nancy Sherman, Jerome Neu, Charles Nussbaum, and Robert Roberts. The book honors the memory of Robert C. Solomon, whose influential work in the philosophy of emotions helped mold the field for over three decades. An introductory essay explains the development and importance of Solomon's thought in this field.

Table of Contents:
Contributors Introduction John Deigh Chapter 1 Justice as an Emotion Disposition Robert C. Roberts Chapter 2 Equality and Love at the End of the Marriage of Figaro: Forging Democratic Emotions Martha C. Nussbaum Chapter 3 Spectator Emotions Paul Woodruff Chapter 4 Comic Amusement, Emotion, and Cognition Noël Carroll Chapter 5 Intellectual and Other Nonstandard Emotions Michael Stocker Chapter 6 Authenticity and the Examined Life Jerome Neu Chapter 7 Self-Knowledge and the Affirmation of Love Laurence Thomas Chapter 8 Love and Death Kathleen Marie Higgins Chapter 9 Guilt in War Nancy Sherman Chapter 10 Emotions and Personal Identity Charles Nussbaum Chapter 11 The Emergence of Emotion as an Object of Scientific Study John Deigh Index

About the Author :
John Deigh is Professor of Philosophy and of Law at the University of Texas at Austin.

Review :
"[This volume] provides a variety of new essays accessible and helpful to both the specialist and the general scholar. One not only finds a wide range of topics in philosophy of emotion addressed, but a variety of methods used to investigate them-with support ranging from psychological and neuroscientific evidence to art and literature." --Aaron Kagan, Philosophical Psychology "Each of the essays deserves discussion in its own right. Together they demonstrate [Robert] Solomon's incredible influence across the many directions the field has taken, leaving readers already immersed in the discipline with new insights to explore. Readers less familiar with Solomon's work or the philosophy of the emotions more generally will benefit from the breadth of this collection and from [the editor's] careful attention to the history of the emotions in philosophical thought." --Katie Stockdale, Ethics "On Emotions: Philosophical Essays provides a variety of new essays accessible and helpful to both the specialist and the general scholar. One not only finds a wide range of topics in philosophy of emotion addressed, but a variety of methods used to investigate them--with support ranging from psychological and neuroscientific evidence to art and literature." --Philosophical Psychology "The chapters in this volume offer many different perspectives on the various ways emotions contribute to the moral, aesthetic, comic, political, and intellectual aspects of human life. Anyone interested in any of these themes will thus find something to please them here." -- Journal of Moral Philosophy "On Emotion is a welcome corrective for those concerned about the enduring caricature of philosophy as obsessed with an artificial divide between mind and body, and between reason and emotion. And for those who fear that focusing too prominently on emotions threatens to give short shrift to reason, this book will reassure them that there is no cause for concern. Concerted efforts at terminological distinction abound; various accounts focus on differentiating emotions from passion, from feelings, and from moods. And still the perennial questions remain central: How can we, as rational animals, as feeling thinkers, live well? How do emotions contribute to living a meaningful life? This book exemplifies the promise of still more treasures to come through the thriving and nourishing collaboration that is philosophy of emotion." -- The Philosophical Quarterly