Solomon, Robert C.

The Passions: Philosophy and the Intelligence of Emotions, Part 1 and Part 2 (Complete set of 4 DVDs + Course Guidebook)

Chantilly, VA: The Great Courses / The Teaching Company, 2006.
DVD set of 4 discs in 2 boxes + paperback guidebook.

Professor Robert Solomon was Quincy Lee Centennial Professor of Business and Philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin, where he taught for over 30 years. In this series of 24 30-minute lectures, Dr. Solomon tackles the subject of human emotion and its role in the good life. He examines the views of philosophers like Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, Descartes, Adam Smith, Nietzsche, William James, Freud, Heidegger, and Sartre, and relating them to contemporary work in the cognitive sciences on emotions, notably research by Antonio Damasio, Joseph LeDoux, and Paul Ekman. He also discusses the portrayal of emotions in writers and artists including Homer, Shakespeare, Melville, Dostoevsky, and Picasso. Dr. Solomon postulates that emotions have intelligence and provide personal strategies that are vitally important to the way we perceive, evaluate, appraise, understand, and act in the world.

The lectures are divided into three sections:

Passions, Love, and Violence: The Drama of the Emotions (Lectures 2–9). The course begins with eight lectures on specific emotions (anger, fear, love, compassion, pride, envy, vengeance, and grief) with insights into the complexity, importance, and roles emotions play in our lives.

Out of Touch with Our Feelings: Misunderstanding the Emotions (Lectures 10–17). These eight lectures examine how we misinterpret and fail to take responsibility for our emotions. For example, the innocent-sounding claim that emotions are feelings represents a fundamental misunderstanding of what emotions are about. Other misconceptions are the seemingly innocent assertion that emotions are "in the mind" and the idea that we are the victims or slaves of our passions.

How Our Passions Enrich Our Lives (Lectures 18–24). The concluding section takes a positive look at the richness and value of our emotions, probing what it is about them that make life worth living. Professor Solomon talks about laughter, music, and the roles that emotions play in different cultures.

Part 1 – 12 Lectures, 30 minutes per lecture, 2 DVDs

1. Emotions as Engagements with the World
2. The Wrath of Achilles
3. It’s Good to be Afraid
4. Lessons of Love – Plato’s Symposium
5. We Are Not Alone – Compassion and Empathy
6. Noble? Or Deadly Sin? Price and Shame
7. Nasty – Iago’s Envy, Othello’s Jealousy
8. Nastier – Resentment and Vengeance
9. A Death in the Family – The Logic of Grief
10. James and the Bear – Emotions and Feelings
11. Freud’s Catharsis – The Hydraulic Model
12. Are Emotions “in” the Mind?

Part 2 – 12 Lectures, 30 minutes per lecture, 2 DVDs

1. How Emotions Are Intelligent
2. Emotions as Judgments
3. Beyond Boohoo and Hooray
4. Emotions Are Rational
5. Emotions and Responsibility
6. Emotions in Ethics
7. Emotions and the Self
8. What is Emotional Experience
9. Emotions across Cultures – Universals
10. Emotions across Cultures – Differences
11. Laughter and Music
12. Happiness and Spirituality

Item #900847
ISBN: 1598030558

4 discs in 2 cases, 24 lectures, 30 minutes per lecture, includes 161pp 5-1/4 x 7-3/8" guide book in pictorial wrappers.

Previously owned set in excellent unused condition.

Price: $45.00