The Rationality of Emotion

ISBN
9780262540575
$35.00
Author De Sousa, Ronald
Format Paperback
Details
  • 8.9" x 6.3" x 0.8"
  • Active Record
  • Individual Title
  • Books
  • Reprint
  • 1990
  • 400
  • Yes
  • Print
  • 24
  • B815.D4 1990
In this urbane and witty book, Ronald de Sousa disputes the widespread notion that reason and emotion are natural antagonists. He argues that emotions are a kind of perception, that their roots in the paradigm scenarios in which they are learned give them an essentially dramatic structure, and that they have a crucial role to-play in rational beliefs, desires, and decisions by breaking the deadlocks of pure reason.The book's twelve chapters take up the following topics: alternative models of mind and emotion; the relation between evolutionary, physiological, and social factors in emotions; a taxonomy of objects of emotions; assessments of emotions for correctness and rationality; the regulation by emotions of logical and practical reasoning; emotion and time; the mechanism of emotional self-deception; the ethics of laughter; and the roles of emotions in the conduct of life. There is also an illustrative interlude, in the form of a lively dialogue about the ideology of love, jealousy, and sexual exclusiveness. A Bradford Book.