Emotions: a Philosophical Introduction

About this course: Philosophy is like sex: sure you can get some interesting results, but that's not why we do it. Going one step beyond…why do you FEEL pain or pleasure? Do plants have emotions? How is possible that some people do not understand other’s emotions? Emotions seem to be everywhere, giving meaning to all events of our lives. They are the backbone of social activities as well as they drive the cognitive processes of several living entities. Several animals, including humans, have emotions but…what about machines?...Do machine can have emotions? This course will help you to understand and to identify most important philosophical ideas and debates about emotions, as well as it will provide you a rich source of data about neurological, psychological or anthropological analysis of emotions. In a nutshell: this is a course to feel and think about.

Who is this class for: No academic background is required to take the course. However, there is a desiderata: to have an open-minded attitude towards new information and ideas.

Created by:  Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

• Taught by:  Jordi Vallverdú, Professor Dr.

  Philosophy Department

Level Beginner Commitment 3-5 hours/week Language English How To Pass Pass all graded assignments to complete the course. User Ratings 4.1 stars Average User Rating 4.1See what learners said Coursework

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Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona The Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) is a public university located in the metropolitan area of Barcelona. International in its outlook, it is fully consolidated within its local surroundings, and offers quality education in close association with research activity, the transfer of scientific, technological, cultural and educational knowledge, the promotion of its human potential and the responsible management of available resources. The UAB currently offers 81 degrees, 130 official Master Programmes and 183 UAB-specific Masters Degrees. In addition, it offers 174 lifelong learning programmes and 65 PhD Programmes, 27 of which have been distinguished through Quality Awards. The UAB has a total of over 3,500 teaching and research staff, over 2,000 administrative staff and over 40,000 students.

Syllabus


WEEK 1


Welcome!



Welcome to this amazing course on the nature of emotions. You’ll see that emotions are everywhere. They are the true meaning of our lives and guide us all throughout our daily actions. There is a lot to discuss, to think about, to discover about them! Six weeks for a Course, one Course for new Knowledge!


1 video, 5 readings expand

1. Video: Welcome to the course!
2. Reading: Welcome, Learners!
3. Reading: Course format
4. Reading: Syllabus
5. Reading: Evaluation
6. Reading: Certification

Where do emotions come from?
At the very beginning of this course we will look at the basic definitions and concepts related to the emotional events. At the same time we will introduce basic philosophical ideas in order to make possible the understanding of the nature of emotional values.


5 videos, 1 reading expand

1. Reading: Week 1 Overview
2. Video: What is an emotion and why do we have them? Some definitions
3. Video: The ABC of emotional processes
4. Video: Why do emotions exist and how many living entities have emotions?
5. Video: How did emotions evolve?
6. Video: Where do emotions happen?

Graded: L1A Exam - Lessons/Videos
Graded: L1B Exam - Reading and External Video

WEEK 2


How many emotions do exist?



After the clarification about the different aspects we can find in emotional analysis, we will look at the number and type of different emotions. There are several theories about their number, and all of them also contain a way to understand how emotions emerged and evolved. The debate will be fun!


5 videos, 1 reading expand

1. Reading: Week 2 Overview
2. Video: Protoemotions, the Holy Grail of protostudies
3. Video: A taxonomy of emotions
4. Video: The geography of emotions: Guilt vs Shame cultures
5. Video: Aware: attention, data selection and the aesthetical feeling of ahness
6. Video: L2.5. No pain, no gain? The modulatory nature of emotions

Graded: L2A Exam - Lessons/Videos
Graded: L2B Exam - Reading and External Video

WEEK 3


What does a plant feel?



Not only humans do have emotions. Other mammals have also them. And even insects. But do plants have emotions? Even bacteria, a so small entity, have also these emotional mechanisms. An evolutionary reconstruction will understand to understand how emotions are spread among living entities.


5 videos, 1 reading expand

1. Reading: Week 3 Overview
2. Video: From nonsense to sense? A bacterial dilemma
3. Video: Animal emotion
4. Video: The qualia problem
5. Video: Conscious vs Unconscious emotions
6. Video: Ghost and chronic emotions

Graded: L3A Exam - Lessons/Videos
Graded: L3B Exam - Reading and External Video

WEEK 4


A neuroanthropological approach to emotions: from neurons to societies



Emotions regulate several key aspects of our life. But they are fundamental for social cohesion. Cooperation or altruism are fundamental aspects of human socialization that must be understood from an emotional perspective. Neurons will show the path to the creation of societies.


5 videos, 1 reading expand

1. Reading: Week 4 Overview
2. Video: Unemotional neurons but emotional brains
3. Video: Emotions without brains?
4. Video: Emotions, empathy and ethics: neuroethical challenges
5. Video: The moral control of the emotional mind
6. Video: The social management of emotions

Graded: L4A Exam - Lessons/Videos
Graded: L4B Exam - Reading and External Video

WEEK 5


The philosophies on emotions



There are plenty of historical debates on the nature and role of emotions into philosophical spaces. Usually, this approach is made studying at Western thinkers, but we will also include Eastern ones. Therefore, we will analyse how most important philosophical traditions have understood and explain the role of emotions. [Spoiler: they always said they were BAD!].


5 videos, 1 reading expand

1. Reading: Week 5 Overview
2. Video: The classic Western debates on the nature of emotions
3. Video: The classic Eastern debates on the nature of emotions
4. Video: The methodological debates on emotions across history
5. Video: The transdisciplinarity of emotional studies: an epistemological gap
6. Video: Damasio’s success and Descartes’s error, the new fashion (or trend?)

Graded: L5A Exam - Lessons/Videos
Graded: L5B Exam - Reading and External Video

WEEK 6


21st Century & emotions: affective computing and sociable robots



At the end of this course we will look on how emotions are displayed into new technological frameworks: social networks, mass media,…but we will think about how emotions are implemented into robots or computers. A new technological era come to us, with the same necessities of all previous ones: emotional. Machines will be emotional, if we want they be really smart, autonomous, and efficient.


5 videos, 1 reading expand

1. Reading: Week 6 Overview
2. Video: Neural Nets
3. Video: Emotional Architectures
4. Video: Affective computing
5. Video: Social robotics and HRI
6. Video: Emotional machines and singularity?

Graded: L6A Exam - Lessons/Videos
Graded: L6B Exam - Reading and External Video
Graded: Get the distinction