By W. V. Harris (NHC Fellow, 1998–99) The angry emotions, and the problems they presented, were an ancient Greek preoccupation from Homer to late antiquity. From the first lines of the Iliad to the church fathers of the fourth century A.D., the control or elimination of rage was an obsessive concern. From the Greek world it passed … Continued
By William M. Reddy (NHC Fellow, 1995–96) In The Navigation of Feeling: A Framework for the History of Emotions, William M. Reddy offers a theory of emotions which both critiques and expands upon recent research in the fields of anthropology and psychology. Exploring the links between emotion and cognition, between culture and emotional expression, Reddy … Continued
By Jenefer Robinson (NHC Fellow, 2002–03) Deeper than Reason takes the insights of modern psychological and neuroscientific research on the emotions and brings them to bear on questions about our emotional involvement with the arts. Robinson begins by laying out a theory of emotion, one that is supported by the best evidence from current empirical work … Continued
Edited by John Corrigan (NHC Fellow, 2014–15) The contributors to Feeling Religion analyze the historical and contemporary entwinement of emotion, religion, spirituality, and secularism. They show how attending to these entanglements transforms understandings of metaphysics, ethics, ritual, religious music and poetry, the environment, popular culture, and the secular while producing new angles from which to approach familiar … Continued
By Owen Flanagan (NHC Fellow, 2015–16) The world today is full of anger. Everywhere we look, we see values clashing and tempers rising, in ways that seem frenzied, aimless, and cruel. At the same time, we witness political leaders and others who lack any sense of shame, even as they display carelessness with the truth … Continued
By John Sitter (NHC Fellow, 1978–79) Studying the poetry, fiction, and nonfiction of the mid-eighteenth century, Sitter attempts to characterize the authors' shared pursuits and preoccupations. He focuses on what he calls literary loneliness—the emerging concept of the isolated writer who creates for a solitary reader, a writer who strives for a "pure poetry" unconnected … Continued
By P. S. Greenspan (NHC Fellow, 1990–91) P.S. Greenspan uses the treatment of moral dilemmas as the basis for an alternative view of the structure of ethics and its relation to human psychology. Greenspan argues that dilemmas may be regarded as possible consequences of a set of social rules designed to be simple enough to … Continued
Seemingly small moments, unexpected and beautiful, make this world interesting. Noticing the beauty all around is a pastime that comes with many benefits, especially in the field of the humanities. Art, music, and film—they are areas I will always enjoy, but one specific night heightened my love for all three, and it happened in the … Continued
As a child, Ken Stringfellow had difficulty relating to others and understanding seemingly inscrutable social cues. Turning to his parents’ collection of LPs changed all that. By immersing himself in symphonic compositions, he was able to understand and translate the emotions of others as they were represented artistically. Curator’s note: Ken Stringfellow is a singer, … Continued
Griswold recalls how a childhood encounter with a sentimental, “middlebrow” poem about a dog and a veteran (which makes her cry to this day) tapped into wells of empathy. She explains how such responses to aesthetic experiences, so often downplayed in academic inquiry, deserve our sustained attention—and even respect.