Emotion The Science of Sentiment

by Evans, Dylan

• ISBN13: 9780192854339
• ISBN10: 019285433X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-06-28
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Was love invented by European poets in the middle ages, as C. S. Lewis claimed, or is it part of human nature? Will winning the lottery really make you happy? Is it possible to build robots that have feelings? These are just some of the intriguing questions explored in this new guide to the latest thinking about the emotions. Drawing on a wide range of scientific research, from anthropology and psychology to neuroscience and artificial intelligence, Emotion: The Science of Sentiment takes the reader on a fascinating journey into the human heart. Illustrating his points with entertaining examples from fiction, film, and popular culture, Dylan Evans ranges from the evolution of the emotions to the nature of love and happiness to the language of feelings, offering readers the most recent thinking on real life topics that touch us all. But Emotion is also a book filled with surprises. Readers will discover, for instance, that the basic emotions are felt the world over--whether we live in the shadow of Times Square or in the depths of the rain forest, we all feel the emotions of disgust, joy, surprise, anger, fear, and distress. We find out that, according to research, winning the lottery does not cause a lasting increase in happiness--a short-lived euphoria is followed in almost every case with a return to our usual emotional state, if not worse. And we meet Kismet, an MIT robot that can express a wide range of emotions, from fear to happiness. Fun to read and based on the latest scientific thinking, here is a stimulating look at our emotions.

Author Biography

Dylan Evans is a Research Fellow in the Department of Philosophy at King's College London, where he directs a research project in the evolution of the emotions. In his previous lives he worked as a film-maker and psychotherapist.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
The universal language	1	(30)
Why Spock could never have evolved	31	(37)
Short cuts to happiness	68	(44)
The head and the heart	112	(33)
The computer that cried	145	(32)
Afterword: The heart has its reasons	177	(6)
Further reading	183	(4)
Source material	187	(8)
Illustrations	195	(4)
Index	199