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PRESENTATION OUTLINE

Philosophy & the Intelligence of Emotions

This lecture will talk mainly about emotions in the context of ethics and practical concerns, that is, their role in the good life.

Lecture is more concerned with the more “normal” vicissitudes and problems we have with emotions, how and why they can make us unhappy, how and why they are sometimes irrational.

an emotion is primarily defined as a very short-term episode.

But emotions are also durable in ways that are hard to measure..they can last a long time too..

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Love, for example, can be lifelong, as can anger and hatred.

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This longevity sometimes is explained by saying that emotions are dispositions, not mere episodes.

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emotions are processes that may go on for a long time and transform themselves in all sorts of ways, including into other emotions.

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For example, love readily gives way to jealousy and grief, and the process of grieving typically includes denial and anger, as well as the depressed feeling that we identify as grief.

What is an emotion?

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For now, let me finesse the question, as Aristotle did in his introduction to the subject..

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Given that the “good life” is the context of the Aristotelian discussion on emotions..

Aristotle notes that some would say that such a life is pleasure and the absence of pain;

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Others would say that it is success; and still others, that it is composed of self-reliance and activities that do not depend on other people..

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Living simply, spending one’s time doing creative arts and projects, and what he called the “life of contemplation,” whether philosophical or spiritual.

This lecture brings in the humanistic & philosophical predilections, thus, the inclinations are clear:

The first of these inclinations is, as mentioned, a primary interest in ethics and the way that emotions fit into—or fail to fit into—the good life, a life lived well and happily.

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The second interest: in thinking and talking about emotions in general, as well as about particular emotions in their most general forms. EG:I am interested in the general concept of human nature and how emotions help to define this nature.

Third predilection is a bias toward history. Not only do we think the history of thinking about emotions is fascinating and revealing, but we believe that the emotions themselves are historical.

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This means, first of all, that they are processes, not discrete forms of momentary experience. But it also means that emotions change over time..