The Passions: Philosophy and the Intelligence of Emotions

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.

7 of 7 people found this review helpful

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.

11 of 12 people found this review helpful

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.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

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.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

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.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

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.

12 of 16 people found this review helpful

Very insightful

This lecture series helped me come to a better understanding of the human emotional experience.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

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 of 24 people found this review helpful

6-stars lecture

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

4 of 6 people found this review helpful

Good overview on historical and current views

Starts out and ends strong, the middle wandered around a bit. I would definitely recommend having some background in philosophy before listening to this series. I highly recommend this same lecturers' series on Nietczhe over this one.