The Passions: Philosophy and the Intelligence of Emotions

Conventional wisdom suggests there is a sharp distinction between emotion and reason. Emotions are seen as inferior, disruptive, primitive, and even bestial forces. These 24 remarkable lectures suggest otherwise-that emotions have intelligence and provide personal strategies that are vitally important to our everyday lives of perceiving, evaluating, appraising, understanding, and acting in the world. Take a tour of Professor Solomon's more than three-decade-long intellectual struggle to reach an understanding of emotions, which he argues are, "the key to the meaning of life." A distinguished philosopher himself, Professor Solomon's lectures unfold as a rich dialogue with other philosophers, including Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Adam Smith, Nietzsche, William James, Freud, Heidegger, and Sartre. In your exploration, you'll address such questions as: how do we distinguish emotions from feelings, such as heartache? What is the meaning of our emotions, and how do they serve to enrich and guide our lives? Are there a determinable number of basic emotions that serve as building blocks for the range of emotions we experience? Is an emotion such as jealousy a genetic trait shared by all humans - or is it something learned? As you listen to these lectures, prepare to think: Think about your own emotions; think about what you observe in others; think about the enormous body of research and conjecture on this fascinating topic as Professor Solomon takes you on a challenging and stimulating journey. The more we puzzle over the nature of emotions, the deeper the mystery becomes. It is a mystery that is by no means solved, but one that repays in careful, philosophical analysis.

All Lectures:
1. Emotions as Engagements with the World
2. The Wrath of Achilles
3. It's Good to Be Afraid
4. Lessons of Love - Plato's Symposium
5. We Are Not Alone - Compassion and Empathy
6. Noble? or Deadly Sin? Pride and Shame
7. Nasty - Iago's Envy, Othello's Jealousy
8. Nastier - Resentment and Vengeance
9. A Death in the Family - The Logic of Grief
10. James and the Bear - Emotions and Feelings
11. Freud's Catharsis - the Hydraulic Model
12. Are Emotions "in" the Mind?
13. How Emotions Are Intelligent
14. Emotions as Judgments
15. Beyond Boohoo and Hooray
16. Emotions Are Rational
17. Emotions and Responsibility
18. Emotions in Ethics
19. Emotions and the Self
20. What Is Emotional Experience?
21. Emotions across Cultures - Universals
22. Emotions across Cultures - Differences
23. Laughter and Music
24. Happiness and Spirituality