Feel good and be good

The lecturer clearly demonstrates how our emotions are a subset of our feelings and are how we engage with the world. Emotions are not things or facts. Our emotional intelligence allows us to process the world and to deal with the world. The more we understand ourselves the better our 'eudomania', right actions that result in well being, an Aristotelian word the lecturer used from time to time.

Heidegger, Nietzsche, Sartre, Freud, Hume, Spinoza, Schopenhauer, Plato and Aristotle made frequent appearances in these lectures. Is it as he quoted Wittgenstein, 'A depressed person lives in a depressed world' or do our emotional intelligence and our own self awareness make us sometimes too self reflective?

Hume will say that 'reason is a slave to our passions' and we should enjoy our passions when we can, while the Buddhist think our passions enslave us too, but we should just accept that as it is and not let the world get to us. Each gives primacy to experiences over our reason as the foundation for understanding but give different suggestions for dealing with the world.

I've recently have been reading all of the people I mentioned in the above paragraph. This lecturer was able to tie them all together and bring recent research and his own spin on what our experiences mean and show why they are just as relevant today as they were in their own day.

Aristotle (who is frequently quoted in these lectures) would say that good habit, good practice and good behavior make us good and give us practical wisdom (phronesis). The lecturer gave a good example, if one misbehaves after having drunk too much, Aristotle would not blame the drinking, but he would blame the person for having drunk when they should have known better due to their own lack of character from wont of phronesis due to lack of good habits, good practices and good behaviors.

There are many fine points that are presented in these lectures and I found them somewhat a delight and edifying to listen to. I did not think I was going to like them at first since he talked about 'universal emotions' as if they were definitely real and gave too much credence to evolutionary psychology. He later in the lectures made those more of a nuanced position. He quotes a lot from Antonio Damasio and his theories and I would recommend his book 'Strange Order of Things' (probably one of my favorite books for this year) which was published after these lectures were made.

22 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

The impeccable Robert Solomon

I've been a fan of Robert C. Solomon's work for a long time, he was first introduced to me in Richard Linkletter's film Waking Life, where the director actually crashed one of the professor's classes and filmed it and then later interviewed him in the same movie. I also had the privilege of reading his textbook introducing philosophy for my philosophy 101 while I was an undergrad. This collection of lectures on human emotions and the philosophical views with neuroscience were very enlightening and Robert has a way of delivering his lectures in an entertaining way as a storyteller.

21 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

How does this have high ratings?!?

What disappointed you about The Passions: Philosophy and the Intelligence of Emotions?

This is quite possibly the most boring thing I have ever read/listened to.

Any additional comments?

I have a few dozen books from the Great Courses. The idiotic canned applause and the cringe worthy introductory music aside, I have found some good courses. This, alas, is not one of them. If you enjoy being spoken to like a third grader in a special class, maybe you will enjoy this. I swear I could summarize each 30 minute section in three sentences or less. I love this topic, but this was terrible.

16 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

A Mile Wide and Inch Deep

First let me say that I am a fan of Prof. Solomon, having completed two previous "Great Courses" of his, one on Existentialism, and one on Nietzsche. However, I felt that this particular course was not up to standard. To begin with, it is much more a psychology course that a philosophy course. So much of it just seems to be an inventory of human emotions. Solomon is an excellent lecturer, so the course is never boring. However I was expecting more. I would have eliminated over 2-3rds of the topics, and concentrated on one-third and gone much more in depth. So many topics are brought up only to be discarded after a few brief comments. For example he claims envy is the one emotion that is never positive. And doesn't really back it up. When I was starting my career I was envious of those with more money that could do more things in life than me. This motivated me. Nothing wrong with that. Another example is deja vu. He brings it up, but never really explains it. And finally, I don't think he adequately address the premise of the entire course, that emotions are intelligent. I am not saying there is no such thing as emotional intelligence, but Solomon did not go deep enough into what this means. To sum up, this is an important topic that deserves more depth than presented here..

15 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

Interesting... in parts

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The presenter does have some interesting insights to contribute, but the lectures are uneven. He appears to be largely unaided by written text, and it shows. Space-fillers, such as "sort of" and "kind of" abound, creating the impression of lacking precision and ad-libbing. The ideas are often not well-supported to empirical research, and even attempts are made to adopt a social constructionist approach (although the latter happens without much conviction). The author's criticism of evolutionary psychology is weak, and no mention is made of Margaret Mead's groundless attempt to prove that jealousy is an entirely socially-constructed emotion. There may be intimations of racism although this never crystallizes to a significant extent. Still, the lectures are worthwhile to a certain extent.

13 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

Breaks new ground

Emotions don't just happen to us, they're something we do. To learn to perceive them more clearly, and to tune them more precisely, is to learn key strategies for personal power, for human connection, for integrity, for happiness, and fulfillment. This course has more juicy and necessary and surprising insights per minute than anything else you are likely to hear, ever. Solomon is a true exemplar of an enquiring mind; to hit "play" on any of his courses is to be instantly engaged at the highest intellectual level -- but most especially with this one, which reprises his own VERY original work.

12 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

Meditation on emotions - Slow to start but worth the experience

This course is broken into three main section. The first seems to be long and somewhat tedious- however it is a good setup for the other two sections. Overall a good meditation on the topic of emotions.

10 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

A true philosopher lectures on the good life

Professor Solomon is much more than a mere scholar of history of philosophy; is is a true philosopher himself. This course was profound and life-affirming, and I would recommend it to anyone no matter their previous experience of philosophy.

7 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

6-stars lecture

After listening to two other Great Courses by Robert C. Solomon, I had to get this, and I was not disappointed.

5 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

Passionate and erudite thinker

Solomon has both a classic and a modern background. He uses it to enrich an important topic.

4 les gens ont trouvé cela utile