Joe Lau | Courses / 2019b PHIL 2245

PHIL2245 Philosophy and emotions

What is an emotion? Is it a feeling, like the sensation of butterflies in the stomach that we experience when we are in love, or is it something more complex, something like a thought or a judgement? How do we explain the nature of emotions? Why do we form emotions in response to things that we know are not real, like literature and movies for example? What is love? Is depression simply being happy? We will discuss these and other issues about emotions.
This course is an intermediate-level course suitable for beginning philosophy students or students with little background in philosophy. It does not mean it is easy. But the lectures will try to offer a guide to the central issues and less emphasis will be placed on the technical details.