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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 152.4
EAN num: 9780738203164
ISBN number: 0738203165
Label: Basic Books
Manufacturer: Basic Books
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 224
Printing Date: 2000-04
Publishing house: Basic Books
Release Date: April 04, 2000
Sale Popularity Level: 714915
Studio: Basic Books
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Product Description:
'An excellent study [that] draws new connections between emotions and intelligence.'
-The Bookwatch
Why do we think some people are beautiful? Why do orgasms feel good? Why do we get angry? Anxious? In this intriguing book, biopsychologist Victor Johnston explores the origin of human feelings and shows us that they are not some strange accident of human nature, but are instead the basis of learning and reasoning. In the process, he offers a radical new view of reality: What we see, hear, smell, feel-even what we consider beautiful-is not an accurate representation of the world around us; rather, our feelings are illusions, shaped by millions of years of evolution. In clear and colorful prose, Johnston helps us navigate the intimate relationship between our emotions and our biological survival-and tells us what this means for human creativity, innovation, and, ultimately, free will.
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
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Rated by buyers 
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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, why one emotion (positive or negative) evolved into multiple emotions, each related to a different aspect of gene survival, such as satisfying hunger, finding a mate, etc. Johnston's theory of emotion is a special application of a more general theory of consciousness. The rest of the book is kind of a grab bag. Johnston devotes too much space to refuting an alternative theory of human consciousness which he never adequately explains, and I suspect he is creating a straw man to argue against. There are a few chapters devoted to Johnson's own simulations and special interests, and a quick review of evolutionary processes in general. The review may be too quick for the unfamiliar reader. The simulations involve genetic algorithms and neural networks. I found the discusion of the former clear, but I was already familiar with the topic. I am also somewhat familiar with neural networks, and the book is inadequate here: Johnson seems to despair of explaining neural networks in a simple way, so kind of assumes the reader already understands them. Outside of his special areas of expertise, Johnson may be prone to error. Certainly, he is unaware of all the research on the socialization skills of primates, and I suspect that some of his statements on early child development are overly simplified.. All in all, this was a five star book for me, but it may not be for others with different backgrounds, either because they know less than me, or know more than me.
Rated by buyers -
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 subsequent book, if there is one.
Rated by buyers -
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 the long; this is merely the same caveat that the likes of the ancient Buhddists, the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (himself often accused of pessimism), and modern science writer Torr Norretranders have also elucidated: namely, we're sort of idealistic in how we process what we perceive to be the external (and internal) world. It's not so very egregious that we're like a bunch of asylum escapees, hallucinating some vastly inaccurate version of a reality we can never hope to know, it's just that neither are we ice cold observers of an objectively understandable interaction between our organismal selves and reality. It's a subtle distinction but one well worth knowing. Dr. Johnston does such a good job of delineating this concept that I had to rate this book the maximum of 5 stars. It is even more germane that he does so in the context of evolutionary psychology by stating that we, evolved primates that we are, did not nor did we need to evolve an ability to perceive and understand reality directly; that would have been nice and all, but what we did, and by virtue of it having happened, what we needed to accomplish was some means by which to survive and leave offspring in the field (remember, the way things are is no endorsement of any normative value for or against). Not only do we perceive and process reality in very creative ways, but we also colour the heck out of it to squeeze the maximum utility out of it, hence, sugar (high quality nutrient) is sweet and good, and sharp teeth and gutteral growling sounds (the theme of not a few scary, supernatural movies) are bad, nay, downright evil! Thus, by the very acts of perceiving and cognizing, do we add and embellish hedonic tone to our experience. In general, this book is a good cummulative grouping of modern cognitive science research findings sans the fluff. It's too bad Daniel Dennett has already claimed the title "Consciousness Explained" and Steven Pinker "How the Mind Works." Either title would have suited Dr. Johnston's work very well.
Rated by buyers -
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 biology-evolution and emergent phenomenon. I would also add that anyone interested in artificial intelligence or artificial life will find Dr. Johnston's outstanding and timely simulations of evolving emotional intelligence outstanding examples of empirical cognitive research. If you are professor, graduate student or even a candel stick maker and even remotely interested in any of the following fields; emotion, behavior, evolution, AI, AL, or beauty, by all means buy this book.
Rated by buyers -
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 concept of emotions existing along a continuum. Johnston's assertion that mental representations of the "real" world are just digital fabrications is also fascinating. (In other words, an apple isn't inherently "red" or "sweet"; we have just evolved to experience such perceptions when we see one and bite into it.) Further, Johnston integrates nicely with MacLean's Triune brain theory which has strong evolutionary logic behind it. Johnston has built a very powerful and compelling theory.
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