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Why We Feel (Helix Books) (Paperback)

by Victor Johnston (Author) "WHEN I FIRST MET DAVID, HE WAS SITTING NERvously on a small wooden chair in a psychiatrist's office..." (more)
Key Phrases: affective value system, inner genetic algorithm, long ancestral history, Miss Maynell, John Blanchard, Round Robin (more...)

4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)

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The Emotional Brain: The Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life by Joseph Ledoux
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The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness by Antonio Damasio
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
How did feelings evolve? How do they develop within us? What is their function, their use to us? How does our nervous system implement them?

These four questions, posed in somewhat different form by the Nobel Prize-winning biologist Niko Tinbergen, propel psychologist Victor Johnston's well-crafted examination of human emotions. Drawing on recent advances in psychology, biology, and the cognitive sciences, he looks into such matters as the role of the emotions in psychological well-being ("the failure to develop an early emotional bond with a single caretaker leads to slow development, withdrawal, depression, and a variety of later developing social problems") and the adaptive advantages--or, at times, disadvantages--of such deep-seated inner feelings as envy and joy. Where earlier scientists were much given to exploring the emotions as responses to external stimuli, Johnston shows that "input from the external world is really not necessary for conscious experiences to occur," as experiments in dreams, sensory deprivation, and hallucinations have shown. Instead, he considers the rich inner world of the emotions as a problem of evolutionary theory, a matter of adaptation and response that favors the survival of genes. Johnston's overview of the science of emotions makes for consistently interesting reading, and it points the way to further research. --Gregory McNamee --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly
The world, according to Johnston, professor of psychobiology at New Mexico State University, is dramatically different from the way in which any of us experience it. In fact, he argues, the world is a dark, silent, tasteless, odorless and colorless place. We create all that we sense: the brilliant color of a sunset, the mouthwatering sweetness of a peach, the acrid odor of rotten eggs. All of our sensual abilities, indeed our ability to feel any emotions, are best envisioned as emergent properties of the neural processes in our brain. Sugar, for example, is neither inherently sweet nor satisfying. Rather, we believe it so because over evolutionary time those most drawn to the energy in sugar were the ones most likely to survive and successfully reproduce. Johnston does an impressive job of explaining how millions of years of evolution are capable of yielding complex behaviors. He demonstrates that computers are capable of learning and developing preferences. Arguing by analogy, he concludes that human reasoning and likes and dislikes are outgrowths of the evolutionary process by which neural networks deal with rapidly changing environments. Johnston concludes his challenging book by discussing the implications this sort of evolutionary worldview has on the concept of free will.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Perseus; 1 edition (April 4, 2000)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0738203165
ISBN-13: 978-0738203164
Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 0.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,127,480 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
WHEN I FIRST MET DAVID, HE WAS SITTING NERvously on a small wooden chair in a psychiatrist's office. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
affective value system, inner genetic algorithm, long ancestral history, simulated affect, irrelevant epiphenomena, negative hedonic tone, hedonic outcomes, simulated feelings, positive hedonic tone, beauty rating, pleasure pathway, evolutionary functionalism, hedonic consequences, evaluative feelings, gene survival, odor trail, air pressure waves, simulated neural network, reproductive consequences, sensory feelings, ancestral environments

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Miss Maynell, John Blanchard, Round Robin, United States

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Citations (learn more)

This book cites 9 books:

The Emotional Brain: The Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life by Joseph Ledoux in Back Matter
Passions Within Reasons by Robert H. Frank in Back Matter
Without Miracles: Universal Selection Theory and the Second Darwinian Revolution by Gary Cziko in Back Matter
The Moral Animal by Robert Wright in Back Matter
The Selfish Gene: 30th Anniversary Edition--with a new Introduction by the Author by Richard Dawkins in Back Matter

See all 9 books this book cites

13 books cite this book:

Christianity Without Fairy Tales: When Science And Religion Merge by Jim Rigas on page 176, and Back Matter
Resonant Leadership: Renewing Yourself and Connecting with Others Through Mindfulness, Hope, and Compassion by Richard E. Boyatzis in Back Matter
Tools for Engagement: Managing Emotional States for Learner Success by Eric Jensen in Back Matter
The Evolution of Morality (Life and Mind: Philosophical Issues in Biology and Psychology) by Richard Joyce in Back Matter
Knowledge And Civilization by Barry Allen in Back Matter

See all 13 books citing this book

Books on Related Topics (learn more)

Psychology by David G. Myers

Discusses:

The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology by David M. Buss

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The Adapted Mind by Jerome H. Barkow

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Handbook of Emotions, Second Edition by Michael Lewis Phd

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Customer Reviews

18 Reviews

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Average Customer Review

4.7 out of 5 stars (18 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Pleasure To Read, December 16, 1999

By	Willem Vandenbroek (Ann Arbor, MI) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Why We Feel: The Science of Human Emotion (Hardcover)

A very well written and tightly argued look at "the science of human emotions" and a pleasure to read. I would also commend it as a good companion to the more widely publicized book by Damasio, The Feeling of What Happens. Johnston focusses on emotions and explains consciousness, including consciousness of emotions, as an "emergent phenomenon" of the composition and arrangement of the brain, and delves no further into anatomy. Damasio picks up from there and tries to say something about how the structure and organization of the brain actually accomplishes this property. Readers may want to ponder the conceptual device of "emergence" which plays such an important part in Johnston's exposition. To say that "speed" in a car is an emergent property of the car, and does not reside in the carburetor or the transmission, does not prevent us from showing how the carburetor and transmission accomplish speed, but does help us understand that selection is working on the whole system and the arrangement of its parts and not on the individual components. Likewise with consciousness. In addition, because Johnston is rhetorically opposing the idea of a correspondence theory of the truth, he stresses the arbitrariness, other than for survival, of the neural representations of our environment, which "really" consists primarily of a whirling chaos of photons, energy particles, and electromagnetic radiations. His argument is very effective, yet somehow our brain's ability to organize this environment has allowed us to come up with pi, build bridges that don't fall down, and develop a mathematics with an amazing capacity to describe the universe; our representations do seem to give us some powerful access to something out there. Both subjects display the force of Johnston's prose, which in part can be attributed, I think, to the clarity that derives from taking a strong rhetorical stance. Throughout the book, the sense one gets is of a powerful intellect in full command of his material.

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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Virtual Reality, November 28, 1999

By	JRK (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Why We Feel: The Science of Human Emotion (Hardcover)

Johnston is extremely convincing in his explanation of how pleasant and unpleasant sensations evolved. For example, he explains that the pleasant sensation of "sweetness" is not a property of sugar molecules, but an illusion of the brain that emerged through natural selection because sugar is a great source of energy. Using persuasive reasoning he explains such things as why rotten eggs smell bad, why tissue damage causes the illusion of pain, and why we feel complex emotions such as love and sadness. This book is a great read that may just challenge your entire view of reality.

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly thought provoking, entertaining and well written., May 2, 2002

By	Jeff K. "jeff4314" (Fremont, CA.) - See all my reviews

Wow. I am what could be described as a "slacker" with "some college", but I enjoy reading books about science, particularly those that aim to explain why things are the way they are...I picked up "Why we Feel" because it seemed like an interesting topic. As a matter of fact, the guy at the counter read the tile and commented "That's a good question!". I feel that this is a book everybody should read. It gives so much insight into who we are that I feel truly thankful that I read it. Feelings. What would life be without them? As the author argues, there would be no point to life at all.

This book goes a long way to answering questions like why do some things feel good and others feel bad? I would sum it up thus: There is, in reality, no point for life to exist. So, emotions are nature's way of motivating us to keep on living! When you do something that will increase your chances of reproducing, you feel good. This includes falling in love, having sex, gaining resources such as food or shelter, etc. As an example on how a negative emotion helps you live, consider if you were a cave man and you found a bone with a particular size and shape that allowed you to beat up your enemies and kill animals for food. If you lost this tool one day, you would feel deep sadness. This negative feeling would be nature punishing you for losing a valuable resource that increases your chances for survival. The author explains how emotions evolved, and other concepts such as why we consider certain characteristics as "beautiful" and certain tastes as good are really just nature's way of steering us towards what we need to reproduce.

The book is short and completely free of fluff or egotistical rambling. The author writes extremely well and keeps a nice constant pace throughout. I read this book in two sittings and will re-read it many times I'm sure. As a non-scientist I found it slightly dense at times, but it's short and interesting enough to re-read. I recommend this book to anyone who is curious about why things are the way they are. If you want to learn about life, not just Human life, but your dog and animals as well, this is a wonderful book. You'll never look at yourself or other people the same way again after being exposed to what modern science has to say about the origin and purpose of human emotions. I will definately buy his next book, if there is one.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Theory is rich, convincing and clear.
The core of this book is a few chapters on the evolutionary benefit of emotion. I found the theory rich and convincing, and the writing clear; the theory explains, for example,... Read more

Published on March 5, 2003 by algo41

5.0 out of 5 stars Sugar isn't really sweet, ripe strawberries aren't red.
The 1st chapter in this book is entitled 'The Grand Illusion.' This is not some pessimistic assessment of the human condition, like we've all been fooling ourselves for naught all... Read more

Published on August 13, 2001 by Earl Dennis

5.0 out of 5 stars Modern, Understandable Cognitive Science at its Best
This book is not only an excellent introduction into the field of emotion but it is probably the only assessable modern synthesis of cognitive science with fundamental... Read more

Published on April 13, 2001 by C. Bogarad

5.0 out of 5 stars Hedonic Tone Rings True
A fabulous book - Johnston gives voice to his concept of "hedonic tone" which has roots in Maslow's idea of "hierarchy of wants" and even Elizabeth Duffy's... Read more

Published on April 12, 2001 by JAK

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring
This is the most inspiring book I read since a long time. Whereas I have never been that much impressed by evolutionary arguments in social behavior, this book gives an exciting... Read more

Published on March 15, 2001 by Bas Verplanken

5.0 out of 5 stars Sensible and insightful
After reading a lot of impressively confusing material on consciousness and intentionality, it was a relief to read such a sound and sensible account. Read more

Published on February 19, 2001 by harry s. white

5.0 out of 5 stars onward and inward
This book does what would have seemed impossible in 200 pages: coordinates the findings of two decades on emotion & consciousness under an evolutionary framework. Read more

Published on June 23, 2000 by Edward A.Cohen, MD

5.0 out of 5 stars A Head Big Enough to Make You Feel It's Lovable
I have got a son recently, and he has got a toy airplane, as well as many stuffed cartoon figures. The smile and awkward body movement of my baby always make me feel he is cute... Read more

Published on April 3, 2000 by Chestman

3.0 out of 5 stars okay
The beginning of this book got me very excited as I was expecting to hear evolutionary discussions of why we have the emotions that we have. Read more

Published on January 19, 2000 by gtfo

5.0 out of 5 stars A superbly readable discussion of the importance of feelings
This book is simply superb. Very clearly and convincingly written. By demonstrating the importance of "hedonic tone" is decision making, the author lays the foundation... Read more

Published on August 29, 1999

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