Georgia State Philosopher Publishes First Comprehensive Guide to Emotion Theory

ATLANTA — Since Ancient Greece, people have struggled to understand how emotions shape us. Andrea Scarantino, a professor of philosophy and neuroscience at Georgia State University, has put together a full collection of the history, theories, elements, major challenges and debates at the heart of emotion theory in his new book, “Emotion Theory: The Routledge Comprehensive Guide.”

All human beings have emotions, but scientists and philosophers tend to disagree about what emotions are and what makes them worth studying. “A theory of emotions is an attempt to clarify what emotions are, and to articulate some interesting generalizations about them,” Scarantino said.

The two-volume collection, edited by Scarantino, collects the works of 101 authors from diverse fields of research. When he began working on the project more than six years ago, Scarantino initially hoped to cover the history of theories of emotions since Ancient Greece, all main contemporary theories of emotions in philosophy, psychology, neuroscience and sociology, all ingredients that make emotions what they are and all main individual emotions from fear all the way to enthusiasm.

Scarantino came to believe he could not attain that goal but said “pursuing foolish objectives can sometimes lead to valuable results.” He describes his book, which contains more than 800,000 words, as the closest thing ever published to a general collection of human knowledge about emotions.

“If you think emotions are the last frontier that distinguishes man from AI-powered artificial agents, the publication of this book makes possible a substantial bridging of that gap,” Scarantino said. “I believe that if ChatGPT were to fully master the contents of the two volumes of this work, it would become next to impossible to distinguish from a top-notch clinical therapist when it comes to discussing emotions with patients.”

While Scarantino hopes readers take away many things from his book, there are a few he would like to emphasize. First, emotion episodes involve a restricted set of distinctive components that are diagnostic of emotions and are to some degree related with one another. Second, nature and nurture both play an essential role in shaping our emotions. Third, emotion and reason are not entangled in conflict the way Ancient Greeks assumed — emotions themselves can be the most rational solution to a problem.

Scarantino’s main challenge in compiling this work was to ensure the authors not only wrote for people in their own fields, but also for people outside of them. His hope is that each sentence of each chapter is perfectly comprehensible for anyone with an interest in emotions, no matter their disciplinary background. To that end, “Emotion Theory: The Routledge Comprehensive Guide” is written for scholars as well as the general public.

“I challenge anyone to pick up a chapter of this collection and find unexplained jargon in it,” Scarantino said. “Book is on me if you do!”

If you're interested in reading “Emotion Theory: The Routledge Comprehensive Guide", click here for information on volume I and here for information on volume II.

— Story by William Greer

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