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This book outlines some of the latest scientific ideas about the emotions in an accessible and exciting way. Dylan Evans shows that emotions are not just luxuries, but help us to live more successful lives. Drawing on research in psychology, biology, and artificial intelligence, he provides a stimulating introduction to a topic relevant to us all.
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223 primary books224 released booksVery Short Introductions is a 225-book series with 248 primary works first released in 1915 with contributions by Mary Beard, John Henderson, and Damien Keown.
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Emotion is a fairly modern word. Philosophers such as Plato and Hume used defining sets of words to categorize a range of human feels in their early writings. They did their best to describe the complexities of our deepest sentiments, which are incredibly interesting to read. Nowadays, I feel like they would have been confused, baffled, or uninterested in putting such a complex range under a wide umbrella as emotion. I can envision them even scoffing at me with the comparison. This got me thinking. How do you describe emotion? Well, this book takes an interesting look at when the word was first used, how the term butts heads with a number of vastly different states of mind, and even covers those who champion emotional intelligence over the more positive and negative connotations of the term. Hello, Vulcans!
***If you are wondering, there are quite a few Star Trek references. It's uber fascinating!