What are emotions? How do they arise? How do they relate to other mental and bodily states? And what is their specific structure? The book discusses these questions, focusing on medieval and early modern theories. It looks at a great number of authors, ranging from Aquinas to Spinoza, and shows that they gave sophisticated accounts of human emotions. They were particularly interested in the way we cope with our emotions: how we can change or perhaps even overcome them? To answer this question, medieval and early modern philosophers looked at the cognitive content of emotions, for they were all convinced that we need to work on that content if we want to change them. The book therefore pays particular attention to the intimate relationship between theories of emotions and theories of cognition. Moreover, the book emphasizes the importance of the metaphysical framework for medieval and early modern theories of emotions. It was a transformation of this framework that made new theories possible. Starting with an analysis of the Aristotelian framework, the book then looks at skeptical, dualist and monist frameworks, and it examines how the nature of emotions was explained in each of them. The discussion also takes the theological and scientific context into account, for changes in this context quite often gave rise to new problems - problems that concerned the love of God, the joy of resurrected souls, or the fear arising in a soul that is present in a body. All of these problems are examined on the basis of close textual analysis.

About the Author
Dominik Perler is Professor of Philosophy at Humboldt-Universitat in Berlin. Tony Crawford is a freelance translator and editor in Berlin.

Reviews
The main aim of the book is to investigate how medieval theologians and philosophers of early modern period deal with the human emotions, in order to control, modify and even overcome them...Perler's thesis is that there are important points of correspondence between medieval, modern and contemporary speculations despite the apparent differences. For example, Thomas Aquinas, Ockham, Descartes and Spinoza unanimously agree, as do many present-day philosophers, that emotions are not simply feelings, but states with a cognitive content. This is why emotions can be modified and influenced by other cognitive states. * Medioevo latino *
The result is historical philosophical analysis at its best. This is an impressive (albeit dense) and carefully reasoned tour de force. Essential. * CHOICE *
Dominik Perler's study Feelings Transformed: Philosophical Theories of the Emotions, 1270-1670 offers perspective and insight to anyone seeking an understanding of how the emotions were theorised by late medieval and early modern philosophers. * Chantelle Saville, Emotions: History, Culture, Society *



Book Information
ISBN 9780199383481
Author Dominik Perler
Format Hardback
Page Count 368
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 640g
Dimensions(mm) 163mm * 239mm * 33mm