The Rationality of Emotion

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 book's 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.