Princess Diana's death was a tragedy that provoked mourning across
the globe; the death of a homeless person, more often than not, is
met with apathy. How can we account for this uneven distribution of
emotion? Can it simply be explained by the prevailing scientific
understanding? Uncovering a rich tradition beginning with
Aristotle, "The Secret History of Emotion" offers a counterpoint to
the way we generally understand emotions today.
Through a radical rereading of Aristotle, Seneca, Thomas Hobbes,
Sarah Fielding, and Judith Butler, among others, Daniel M. Gross
reveals a persistent intellectual current that considers emotions
as psychosocial phenomena. In Gross's historical analysis of
emotion, Aristotle and Hobbes's rhetoric show that our passions do
not stem from some inherent, universal nature of men and women, but
rather are conditioned by power relations and social hierarchies.
He follows up with consideration of how political passions are
distributed to some people but not to others using the Roman Stoics
as a guide. Hume and contemporary theorists like Judith Butler,
meanwhile, explain to us how psyches are shaped by power. To
supplement his argument, Gross also provides a history and critique
of the dominant modern view of emotions, expressed in Darwinism and
neurobiology, in which they are considered organic, personal
feelings independent of social circumstances.
The result is a convincing work that rescues the study of the
passions from science and returns it to the humanities and the art
of rhetoric.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
