The Emotional Mind: The Affective Roots of Culture and Cognition

Stephen T. Asma; Rami Gabriel

Published by Harvard University Press 2019

The Emotional Mind

The Affective Roots of Culture and Cognition

Stephen T. Asma and Rami Gabriel

https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674238916

Overview
Contents

About this book

For 200 million years before humans developed a capacity to reason, the emotional centers of the brain were hard at work. Stephen Asma and Rami Gabriel help us understand the evolution of the mind by exploring this more primal capability that we share with other animals: the power to feel, which is the root of so much that makes us uniquely human.

Reviews

With impressive mastery of the scientific and philosophical literature, The Emotional Mind is an ambitious work with sweeping scope and multidisciplinary character. Asma and Gabriel have written an impressively thorough volume, pulling together work in a variety of disciplines to present a detailed picture of the fundamental role of affective systems and processes in perception, cognition, decision-making, and social behavior.
-- David Livingstone Smith, author of Less than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others

The power of the emotions in our lives is obvious, yet many people prefer to stress the intellectual side of our species. When philosophers turn to the emotions, as in this fascinating book, something magical happens. We get a far more realistic view of human affairs by grounding our psychology in age-old impulses and strivings.
-- Frans de Waal, author of Mama’s Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us about Ourselves

In The Emotional Mind, Asma and Gabriel have produced a scholarly work that adds significantly to the current literature. It uses cognitive science to show that affect is the neglected partner when it comes to imagining the construction of the modern human mind. This is a much-needed contribution.
-- Antonio Damasio, author of The Strange Order of Things: Life, Feeling, and the Making of Cultures

An admirable accomplishment, bringing together evolutionary and ecological psychology; philosophy of mind and of psychology; and evolution of culture. This book has been called for since affective neuroscience came on the scene, and the foundational claim that emotions are shaped by and shape both internal cognition and the external world will be used to rethink human evolutionary adaptations of all kinds.
-- Heidi M. Ravven, author of The Self Beyond Itself: An Alternative History of Ethics, the New Brain Science, and the Myth of Free Will

An ambitious study of the role of emotion in human cognitive and cultural development…Will likely play a significant role in reshaping scientific and philosophical discussions with respect to mind, emotion, and culture.
-- Choice

A fresh and compelling take on the affective roots of human rationality, cognition, and judgment-making processes.
-- Paul Rezkalla Quarterly Review of Biology

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Introduction: The Affective Roots of Culture and Cognition Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. Why a New Paradigm? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	21
2. Biological Aboutness: REASSESSING TELEOLOGY Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	43
3. Social Intelligence from the Ground Up Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	74
4. Emotional Flexibility and the Evolution of Bioculture Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	91
5. The Ontogeny of Social Intelligence Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	122
6. Representation and Imagination Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	153
7. Language and Concepts Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	184
8. Affect in Cultural Evolution: THE SOCIAL STRUCTURE OF CIVILIZATION Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	204
9. Religion, Mythology, and Art Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	264
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	317
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	365
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	413
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	417

Language: English
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Pages
- Main content: 368
Keywords: psychology of emotions; emotional learning; social intelligence; evolution of affect; CARE affective system; emotional intelligence; cultural evolution; LUST affective system; Jaak Panksepp; SEEKING affective system; Theory of mind

eBook

Published: April 15, 2019
ISBN: 9780674238916