Foreword

Summary

Wesley Boston

There are three principal ways to approach an understanding of emotions. One is the philosophical approach, an attempt through conceptual analysis to identify the essence of what emotions are. The second is the psychological approach, which attempts to identify and trace the roles emotions play in peoples’ thought and behavior. Philosophers may also draw on the psychological approach for insights to understand the mental mechanisms at play. Different from the philosophical and psychological approaches is the third or neurobiological approach to understanding changes in the brain and body that help to explain emotional experience. The aim of this brief, synoptic account of emotions, and the feelings they cause, is to draw together central insights from these three perspectives to facilitate the treatment of feelings and emotions in the chapters that follow.