The Subtlety of Emotions

Front Cover
MIT Press, Aug 24, 2001 - Psychology - 628 pages
An informal yet rigorous exploration of human emotions in all their complexity and subtlety.

Why do we cry at the movies? What is the best way to manage destructive feelings such as jealousy? Although emotions pervade our lives, their nature, causes, and effects have only recently been studied by social scientists and philosophers. Despite growing scientific interest in the subject, empirical findings have not yet caught up with our intuitive knowledge. In this book Aaron Ben-Ze'ev carries out what he calls "a careful search for general patterns in the primeval jungle of emotions." In an engaging, informal style he draws on a variety of theoretical approaches and popular sources to produce a coherent account of emotions in all their subtlety. All of the ideas are illustrated with examples drawn from everyday life.

The book is organized into two parts. The first presents an overall conceptual framework for understanding emotions. It looks at the typical characteristics and components of emotions, distinguishes emotions from other affective phenomena, classifies the emotions, and covers such related issues as emotional intelligence, regulating emotions, and emotions and morality. The second part discusses individual emotions, including envy, jealousy, pleasure-in-others'-misfortune, pity, compassion, anger, hate, disgust, love, sexual desire, happiness, sadness, pride, regret, and shame. The text is laced with insightful and often amusing quotations from sources ranging from Mae West to Montesquieu.

 

Contents

III
1
IV
3
V
5
VI
11
VII
13
VIII
18
IX
29
X
31
LV
256
LVI
261
LVII
265
LVIII
273
LIX
278
LX
279
LXI
281
LXII
282

XI
32
XII
41
XIII
48
XIV
49
XVI
52
XVII
56
XVIII
60
XIX
64
XX
67
XXI
73
XXII
77
XXIII
78
XXIV
79
XXV
82
XXVI
86
XXVII
89
XXVIII
92
XXIX
99
XXX
104
XXXI
114
XXXII
117
XXXIII
122
XXXIV
150
XXXV
158
XXXVI
161
XXXVII
165
XXXVIII
175
XXXIX
181
XL
189
XLI
191
XLII
193
XLIII
196
XLIV
204
XLV
208
XLVI
210
XLVII
219
XLVIII
221
XLIX
222
L
228
LI
236
LII
241
LIII
243
LIV
248
LXIII
297
LXIV
300
LXV
305
LXVI
316
LXVII
321
LXVIII
327
LXIX
336
LXX
340
LXXI
346
LXXII
353
LXXIII
354
LXXIV
362
LXXV
371
LXXVI
373
LXXVII
379
LXXVIII
393
LXXIX
397
LXXX
400
LXXXI
405
LXXXII
425
LXXXIII
429
LXXXIV
437
LXXXV
443
LXXXVI
449
LXXXVII
466
LXXXVIII
467
LXXXIX
469
XC
471
XCI
473
XCII
481
XCIII
484
XCIV
487
XCV
491
XCVI
506
XCVII
507
XCVIII
509
XCIX
518
C
525
CI
531
CII
535
CIII
567
CIV
589
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2001)

Aaron Ben-Ze'ev is Dean of Research, Professor of Philosophy, and Co-director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Emotions at the University of Haifa.

Bibliographic information