Emotions as Engines of History

Emotions as Engines of History
Author: Rafał Borysławski
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2021-09-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000452379

Seeking to bridge the gap between various approaches to the study of emotions, this volume aims at a multidisciplinary examination of connections between emotions and history and the ways in which these connections have manifested themselves in historiography, cultural, and literary studies. The book offers a selected range of insights into the idea of emotions, affects, and emotionality as driving forces and agents of change in history. The fifteen essays it comprises probe into the emotional motives and dispositions behind both historical phenomena and the ways they were narrated.

The Ascent of Affect

The Ascent of Affect
Author: Ruth Leys
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 399
Release: 2017-11-10
Genre: Science
ISBN: 022648873X

In recent years, emotions have become a major, vibrant topic of research not merely in the biological and psychological sciences but throughout a wide swath of the humanities and social sciences as well. Yet, surprisingly, there is still no consensus on their basic nature or workings. Ruth Leys’s brilliant, much anticipated history, therefore, is a story of controversy and disagreement. The Ascent of Affect focuses on the post–World War II period, when interest in emotions as an object of study began to revive. Leys analyzes the ongoing debate over how to understand emotions, paying particular attention to the continual conflict between camps that argue for the intentionality or meaning of emotions but have trouble explaining their presence in non-human animals and those that argue for the universality of emotions but struggle when the question turns to meaning. Addressing the work of key figures from across the spectrum, considering the potentially misleading appeal of neuroscience for those working in the humanities, and bringing her story fully up to date by taking in the latest debates, Leys presents here the most thorough analysis available of how we have tried to think about how we feel.

Emotional

Emotional
Author: Leonard Mlodinow
Publisher: Pantheon
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2022-01-11
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1524747599

We’ve all been told that thinking rationally is the key to success. But at the cutting edge of science, researchers are discovering that feeling is every bit as important as thinking. You make hundreds of decisions every day, from what to eat for breakfast to how you should invest, and not one of those decisions would be possible without emotion. It has long been said that thinking and feeling are separate and opposing forces in our behavior. But as Leonard Mlodinow, the best-selling author of Subliminal, tells us, extraordinary advances in psychology and neuroscience have proven that emotions are as critical to our well-being as thinking. How can you connect better with others? How can you make sense of your frustration, fear, and anxiety? What can you do to live a happier life? The answers lie in understanding your emotions. Journeying from the labs of pioneering scientists to real-world scenarios that have flirted with disaster, Mlodinow shows us how our emotions can help, why they sometimes hurt, and what we can learn in both instances. Using deep insights into our evolution and biology, Mlodinow gives us the tools to understand our emotions better and to maximize their benefits. Told with his characteristic clarity and fascinating stories, Emotional explores the new science of feelings and offers us an essential guide to making the most of one of nature’s greatest gifts.

The Routledge History of Emotions in the Modern World

The Routledge History of Emotions in the Modern World
Author: Katie Barclay
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 610
Release: 2022-08-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000614123

The Routledge History of Emotions in the Modern World brings together a diverse array of scholars to offer an overview of the current and emerging scholarship of emotions in the modern world. Across thirty-six chapters, this work enters the field of emotion from a range of angles. Named emotions – love, anger, fear – highlight how particular categories have been deployed to make sense of feeling and their evolution over time. Geographical perspectives provide access to the historiographies of regions that are less well-covered by English-language sources, opening up global perspectives and new literatures. Key thematic sections are designed to intersect with critical historiographies, demonstrating the value of an emotions perspective to a range of areas. Topical sections direct attention to the role of emotions in relations of power, to intimate lives and histories of place, as products of exchanges across groups, and as deployed by new technologies and medias. The concepts of globalisation and modernity run through the volume, acting as foils for comparison and analytical tools. The Routledge History of Emotions in the Modern World is the perfect resource for all students and scholars interested in the history of emotions across the world from 1700.

Emotions As Engines of History

Emotions As Engines of History
Author: Rafał Borysławski
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2021-09-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781003019015

"Seeking to bridge the gap between various approaches to the study of emotions, this volume aims at a multidisciplinary examination of connections between emotions and history and the ways in which these connections have manifested themselves in historiography, cultural, and literary studies. The book offers a selected range of insights into the idea of emotions, affects, and emotionality as driving forces and agents of change in history. The fifteen essays it comprises probe into the emotional motives and dispositions behind both historical phenomena and the ways they were narrated"--

Thinking about the Emotions

Thinking about the Emotions
Author: Alix Cohen
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 332
Release: 2017-05-26
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0191079448

Philosophical reflection on the emotions has a long history stretching back to classical Greek thought, even though at times philosophers have marginalized or denigrated them in favour of reason. Fourteen leading philosophers here offer a broad survey of the development of our understanding of the emotions. The thinkers they discuss include Aristotle, Aquinas, Ockham, Descartes, Malebranche, Spinoza, Hobbes, Hume, Shaftesbury, Hutcheson, Kant, Schiller, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, James, Brentano, Stumpf, Scheler, Heidegger, and Sartre. Central issues include the taxonomy of the emotions; the distinction between emotions, passions, feelings and moods; the relation between the emotions and reason; the relationship between the self and the emotions. At a metaphilosophical level, the collection also raises issues about the value of historical study of the discipline, and what light it can shed on contemporary concerns. Thinking about the Emotions is a fascinating and illuminating collective study of how philosophers have grappled with this most intriguing part of our nature as beings who feel as well as think and act.

Passionate Engines

Passionate Engines
Author: Craig DeLancey
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2001-12-06
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0198032579

In this unique contribution to philosophical debate, Craig DeLancey shows that our best understanding of emotion provides essential insight on key issues in philosophy of mind and artificial intelligence. DeLancey offers us a bold new approach to the study of the mind based on the latest scientific research, and provides an accessible overview of the science of emotion and explanation of the technical issues that arise, with minimal jargon.

The Rivalrous Renaissance

The Rivalrous Renaissance
Author: Bradley J. Irish
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2024-12-10
Genre: History
ISBN: 1040269435

Envy and jealousy are the emotions that fuel interpersonal rivalry, and interpersonal rivalry is a cornerstone of literature. Emerging from growing scholarly interest in the history of emotion, The Rivalrous Renaissance is the first full-length study of envy and jealousy in Renaissance England. The book introduces readers both to the cultural dynamics of affective rivalry in the period and to how these crucial feelings inspired literary works across a wide range of genres, by luminary authors such as Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser, Mary Wroth, William Shakespeare, and John Milton. Early modern concepts of envy and jealousy were more actively theorized as central components of human experience than is typical today. Bradley J. Irish argues that literature is the key domain where this Renaissance theorization of affective rivalry was brought to life. Poetry, drama, and narrative prose created the conditions for these concepts to become most socially meaningful, simulating the interpersonal experiences in which the emotions practically manifest. This volume will appeal to scholars interested in the history of emotion and affect, as well as more broadly to scholars of the literature and social dynamics of early modern England, and to undergraduate and graduate students in specialized seminars.