On the Emotions (Ernst Cassirer Lectures)

richard Wollheim Recruits Into Service The Insights Of Literature And Of Psychoanalysis, As Well As Of Philosophy, In This Thought-provoking Account Of The Emotions. Starting From The Premise That Emotions Form A Distinct Psychological Category, Wollheim Argues That They Are - Like Beliefs And Desires - Dispositions Or Underlying Forces In The Mind That Erupt From Time To Time Into The Stream Of Consciousness. However, To Assimilate Emotions To Beliefs Or To Desires Or To Some Combination Of The Two Is Quite Wrong. Emotions Are Attitudes Or Orientations To The World, Says The Author, And In This Regard They Are Naturally Associated With The Imagination.

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wollheim (philosophy, Berkeley) Here Expands Upon A Series Of Lectures He Delivered Several Years Ago, Giving This Published Version New Substance And Depth. Positing His Exploration Of Emotions To Be An Exercise In Applied Moral Philosophy, Wollheim Presents And Critiques The Veracity Of Several Theories About Emotions As Factic Entities. In The First Lecture, He Considers Theories Proposed By Phenomenology, By Gilbert Ryle, And By William James And Sigmund Freud, Concluding That The Originating Condition Of Emotion Is Desire. In The Next Lecture, He Presents The History Of An Emotion From Its Origin, Addressing Sartrean And Kleinian Considerations, To The Point Of The Persistent Emotion's Manifestation And The Problematic Association Of Feeling With Emotion. In The Final Lecture, The Moral Emotions (shame, Guilt, Remorse, And Regret) Are Presented As Additional Ways In Which The Individual Orients Himself Or Herself In Life. Wollheim Concludes That Human Interaction Engendered By Emotion And The Emotion That Interaction Engenders, Engages, And Satisfies Are Mutually Sustaining. Specialists Will Find This Book Provocative And Engaging.--francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley P.l., Ca Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.