ACE Class Report – Philosophy and the Intelligence of Emotions.
Begin: 8/3/2023
Finish: 10/19/2023
Title: Philosophy and the Intelligence of Emotions
Instructor: Professor Robert C. Solomon
University of Texas, Austin
Why I choose to take this class:
To find out the philosophy of emotions. Philosophy is an entire new topic for me to explore. This topic will challenge my mind and for me to think critically.
What I learned from this class:
Emotions can be described as a person’s acute feeling such as happiness, anger or fear, That is triggered by certain events or thoughts. Emotions can cause changes in the body or behavior without personal effort or control. An emotion can be pleasant or unpleasant. Not all scientist believe emotions are automatic response to a trigger, or that a certain class or emotions, such as fear, anger, sadness, happiness and disgust are innate. They developed three approaches to explaining how emotions occur: 1) The Basic Emotion Approach, 2) The Appraisal Approach and 3) The Constructivist Approach. The Basic Emotion Approach: Charles Darwin, that all mammals express internal mental states in similar ways, through body postures and facial behaviors, called expressions, remaining traces of our evolutionary past. Most agreed that there are at least 5 basic emotions: 1) happiness, 2) anger, 3) sadness, 4) fear and 5) disgust. The Appraisal Approach: Emotions are triggered by an event, instead the result from a person’s meaningful interpretation or appraisal of an event. An event triggers a meaning analysis (Appraisal) in the person’s mind. Generally, different combinations of appraisals produce a variety of different degrees of anger, sadness, fear and other emotions. The Constructivist Approach: William James and Carl Lange believe that emotions were physical states that are perceived or understood as telling a person something meaningful about the world. Where emotions are produced by two factors: 1) Physical changes in a person’s body and 2) The reason the person gives for the changes. Both pleasant and unpleasant events can trigger a person’s heart beat to increase. But memories and experience help the brain determine whether the person experience fear or joy. The mind constructs emotions by combining more basic psychological process. This approach helps explain how some emotions can be felt differently overtime, among different people and among different culture.
Emotion And The Brian: Brain imaging studies suggest that there are no region in the brain that are specific to emotion. Nerve connections in the brain are involved in memory, thought, and perception, along with those that represent a persons physical state, are active when a person experience and emotion.
How will this class contribute to my success upon my release:
The knowledge gained from this class will help my critical thinking skills which I will use when I make critical decisions or commitment. It will prevent me from recidivism. Also it trains me to teach a new topic.
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