Upheavals of thought : the intelligence of emotions
/ Martha C. Nussbaum
- Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press , 2001.
- xiii, 751 p. ; 24 cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 715-734) and indexes.
Nussbaum, a distinguished philosopher and classicist now at the University of Chicago, ably defends a cognitive view of emotions that owes much to the Stoics. In this view, "emotions are appraisals or value judgments, which ascribe to things or persons outside the person's own control great importance for that person's own flourishing." She endeavors to show that the emotions of animals can be studied within this framework. Grief occupies a prominent role in Part 1, compassion in Part 2, and love in the concluding part. Here she distinguishes among Platonic, Christian, and Romantic views of love, finding much of value in each but expressing concern that these views dangerously attempt to transcend the limits of the body. Throughout, sensitive interpretations of literary texts by Dante, Proust, Joyce, Whitman, and others illuminate and extend her approach to the emotions. She also discusses music and the emotions, with careful attention to Mahler. This is an original and carefully fleshed-out view.
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Emotions and cognition. Emotions----Physiological Aspects