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Emotion: The Science of Sentiment

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One of the most fascinating characters of modern popular culture is Spock, the half-human, half-Vulcan alien on the original Star Trek series. Spock got the Vulcan freedom from emotion in the non-human half of his genes. It sometimes made it difficult to get along with him; he never got jokes, for instance, and was fascinated by what went on around him, but never amused. Because he had no emotions, he made all his decisions with cool rationality, and because he wasted no mental energy on emotions, had had a superhuman degree of intelligence, insight, and logic. Examining Spock's emotionless state is one of the themes in _Emotion: The Science of Sentiment_ (Oxford University Press) by Dylan Evans, a short, witty review of the current scientific and evolutionary views on emotion. Spock could not have evolved in any environment we are familiar with. For instance, fear is a beneficial emotion, helping animals react swiftly. Animals incapable of feeling it would not last long. Emotions, contrary to the opinion held by philosophers through the centuries, are not a drain on intellect, but help it.

Most researchers would include fear, disgust, joy, distress, anger, and surprise in a list of basic emotions. Darwin himself thought that there was a universality of human emotions shared by all cultures, and that this was evidence that humans had evolved together and then the races and cultures had separated. However, this view was not generally held until fairly recently; it was supposed that just as your culture teaches you language, it also teaches you what emotions are part of your world and how to display them. Not true; experiments in the 1960's showed that a remote tribe that had never seen western media could match pictures of faces to the proper emotion, and in reverse, Americans could recognize the emotions being shown by tribal members who were asked to display fear, anger, etc. Emotions, at least some of the basic ones, are indeed universal and part of our genetic rather than cultural heritage.

All in all, Emotions have gotten a bad press, for centuries. _Emotion_, a valuable small primer, helps set the record straight, with amusing examples and fascinating explanations of the experiments that have helped make the role of emotions plain. The lesson is driven home repeatedly: emotions are good for us, they help (not hinder) rationality, and they are there because natural selection has used them to get us around a dangerous, unpredictable world.

This layman's guide to the emotions is a delightful walking tour through the gardens of philosophy, psychology and neuroscience, not to mention popular culture. Author Dylan Evans proposes the thesis that emotions are an evolutionary necessity that plays an important role in ensuring human survival. He demonstrates his thesis with anecdotes and illustrations. Though it delivers some intellectually rigorous material, this is not an intellectually rigorous book. It is more of a long, agreeable, rambling monologue. We highly recommend it to those who would read it primarily for pleasure, and secondarily suggest it as a useful overview of the evolutionary role of emotions. Its ample bibliography can guide those who are interested in exploring the subject in greater depth.

Joy, distress, anger, fear, surprise, and disgust. Love, guilt, shame, embarrassment, pride, envy, and jealousy. The first list represents, for Evans, emotions that are universal and innate in the human species. They are our fundamental, basic emotions. The second list represents emotions that arise via higher cortical functions. Evans refers to them as 'higher cognitive emotions'. Although these emotions, like the basic emotions, are also universal, they have a social function and "exhibit more cultural variation." (29) Evans distinguishes between moods and emotions. "Moods are background states that raise or lower our suseptibility to emotional stimuli." (68) Happiness is a mood; joy is an emotion. (68)

This is a short and simple-minded introduction to a complex subject. The book might get you started in thinking about emotions from an evolutionary view, but the level of Evan's discussion is shallow and philosophically naive (a lack of intellectual sophistication, typical for mundane thinkers, but a trait I always find baffling in academicians). Portions of the book reinforce the (one hopes, unfair) view that academic psychologists make a career out of hokey experiments that demonstrate what almost everyone already knows. Evans offers references and suggestions for additional reading to pursue the discussion further.

This book is very entertaining and interesting. The author uses examples that are very easy for people to relate to so it is easy to understand the concepts regardless of whether or not a person is knowledgeable about the subject. The book brings up some excellent thinking points and interesting ideas that can help a person better relate to other people.