The Rationality of Emotion (Bradford Books)

About this book

In this urbane and witty book Ronald de Sousa disputes the widespread notion that reason and emotion are natural antagonists. He argues that emotions are a kind of perception that their roots in the paradigm scenarios in which they are learned give them an essentially dramatic structure and that they have a crucial role to-play in rational beliefs desires and decisions by breaking the deadlocks of pure reason.The books twelve chapters take up the following topics: alternative models of mind and emotion; the relation between evolutionary physiological and social factors in emotions; a taxonomy of objects of emotions; assessments of emotions for correctness and rationality; the regulation by emotions of logical and practical reasoning; emotion and time; the mechanism of emotional self-deception; the ethics of laughter; and the roles of emotions in the conduct of life. There is also an illustrative interlude in the form of a lively dialogue about the ideology of love jealousy and sexual exclusiveness. A Bradford Book.