The Toronto Philosophy Meetup

• The History of Emotions: A Very Short Introduction (2023) by Thomas Dixon
  (Please scroll to the bottom for the reading schedule and materials! 👇👇👇 Note that the book is available in both print and audiobook formats.)

I have found that the books in the "Very Short Introduction" series are extremely good at generating great conversations. If you feel that the book is "too easy", I suggest you come to the meetup anyway. I think you might be surprised at the quality of conversation that a good yet introductory book like "The History of Emotions" can generate.

This is a very accessible book and I hope and expect that it will attract people who are very new to Philosophy. In keeping with this, I will describe this meetup in two distinct ways in order to meet the needs of both philosophical beginners and also the needs of old hands.

If you are a beginner:

Please just read the section of the book that has been assigned for that week. It is a very short book (obviously!) and large parts of it will be read out loud during the meetup itself. The book is on the sort of topic which every human is qualified to think about - no specialized knowledge required. So feel free to speak during the meetup even if (especially if!) you are new to Philosophy.

If you are an old hand at Philosophy:

In addition to reading the book, you may also want to check out the "Further Reading" sections given for each chapter. Feel free to mention what you have learned from the books in the "Further Reading" sections. But if you mention material that is not found in the main body of the book, please do so in a way that is supportive towards people in the group who are new to Philosophy. If you are an old hand at Philosophy, it will be irresistible to relate the Thomas Dixon book to other thinkers who talk about emotions in a Philosophical way (Foucault, Heidegger, Kristeva and many others). Please feel free to do this, but please be sure to introduce these other thinkers and their thoughts in a way that is accessible to the beginners in the group. OK?

In general, when I am hosting, the conversation can get a bit intense. Friendly, yes. But intense. I have been willing to take on the responsibility of handling intense Philosophical conversations like this - but I will not ask Jen and James to take on that responsibility. When Jen and James are doing this meetup on "History of Emotions" we don't want that kind of intense discussion. We want the discussion to be more cooperative and supportive. If the meetup gets too rowdy and there are too many raised voices, I have asked Jen and James to just shut the meetup down entirely. We will then resume it with the Bergo and Grier book when I get back.

In a nutshell:

When I am present I take on the responsibility to manage any rowdiness that arises. While I am away, the group itself will have to manage any rowdiness that arises. I simply will not ask Jen and James to take on that responsibility. If you have been in this group for a long time, please step in when required and help to guide the group towards a peaceful, cooperative style of conversing.

I am sure that as the meetup progresses, Jen and James will find the style and format that works best for this particular group and this particular book. So I will just mention what has been the standard format of this Sunday meetup for several years now. But please be aware that the format I am about the list could change as Jen and James learn what works best in this particular case.

For example, as the meetup progresses, Jen and James may decide to go back to earlier parts of the book which they feel should be talked about more. Also, if one of the books or essays mentioned in the "Further Reading" lists seems to be of interest to the group, maybe Jen and James will decide to cover that essay or a chapter from that book.

The format will start out as our usual "accelerated live read" format. What this means is that each participant will be expected to read roughly 10-15 (short!) pages from the book before each session. Each participant will have the option of picking a few paragraphs they especially want to focus on. We will then do a live read on the paragraphs that the participants found most interesting when they did the assigned reading. The format may evolve as Jen and James see fit.

People who have not done the reading are welcome to attend this meetup. However if you want to TALK during the meetup it is essential that you do the reading. It is essential that the direction of the conversation be influenced only by people who have actually done the reading. You may think you are so brilliant and wonderful that you can come up with great points even if you do not do the reading. You probably are brilliant and wonderful! No argument there. But you still have to do the reading if you want to talk in this meetup.

Please note that this meetup will start out as a "raise hands" meetup and has a highly structured format, not an anarchy-based one. It may evolve as Jen and James see fit.

Here is THE READING SCHEDULE for the first three sessions:

• Jan 11th: pages 1-20
• Jan 18th: pages 21-40
• Jan 25th: pages 41-61

A pdf copy of the text is available here (link). The audiobook can be streamed on various platforms, including on Spotify for free if you have a subscription.

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About the book:

Emotions are complex mental states that resist reduction. They are visceral reactions but also beliefs about the world. They are spontaneous outbursts but also culturally learned performances. They are intimate and private and yet gain their substance and significance only from interpersonal and social frameworks. And just as our emotions in any given moment display this complex structure, so their history is plural rather than singular. The history of emotions is where the history of ideas meets the history of the body, and where the history of subjectivity meets social and cultural history.

In this Very Short Introduction, Thomas Dixon traces the historical ancestries of feelings ranging from sorrow, melancholy, rage, and terror to cheerfulness, enthusiasm, sympathy, and love. The picture that emerges is a complex one, showing how the states we group together today as "the emotions" are the product of long and varied historical changes in language, culture, beliefs, and ways of life. The grief-stricken rage of Achilles in the Iliad, the happiness inscribed in America's Declaration of Independence, the love of humanity that fired crusades and revolutions through the ages, and the righteous rage of modern protest movements all look different when seen through this lens.

With examples from ancient, medieval, and modern cultures, including forgotten feelings and the creation of modern emotional regimes, this Very Short Introduction sheds new light on our emotions in the present, by looking at what historians can tell us about their past. Dixon explains the key ideas of historians of emotions as they have developed in conversation with psychology and psychiatry, with attention paid especially to ideas about basic emotions, psychological construction, and affect theory.

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From the translator's "Note" on the text:
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"This translation is conservative in interpretation and traditional in aim. It aims to translate the text as accurately as possible.
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"I translated every page from scratch, from a clean Greek text, rather than revising an existing translation. ... I wanted to avoid the scholars’ dialect that is traditionally used for translating Aristotle.
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"I reject the approach of Arthur Adkins, Elizabeth Anscombe, and others who followed Nietzsche in supposing that the main elements of modern thinking about right and wrong were unknown to the Greeks, or known to them only in some radically different form. My view of humanity and of our shared moral instincts is shaped by a newer paradigm. This is a post-Darwinian translation. (It is also more in line with the older, both Aristotelian and Christian view of human character.)
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"Having said that, I have no interest at all in modernizing Aristotle’s ideas. All the attitudes of this treatise remain fully Greek, very patriarchal, somewhat aristocratic, and firmly embedded in the fourth century BC. My choice of dialect (standard English) has no bearing on that whatsoever. (It is perfectly possible to express distinctively Greek and ancient attitudes in standard English.) ... I have also not simplified the text in any way. I have translated every iota, particle, preposition, noun, verb, adjective, phrase, clause, and sentence of the original. Every premise and every argument therefore remains – unfortunately – exactly as complex and annoyingly difficult as in any other version in whatever dialect.
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"Some scholars and students unwarily assume that the traditional dialect has a special connection with Greek and that using it brings readers closer to the original text; and that it makes the translation more accurate. In reality, it has no special tie to the Greek language, either in its main philosophical glossary or in its dozens of minor (and pointless) deviations from normal English. And in my view it certainly makes any translation much less accurate.
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"I will occasionally refer to the scholars’ dialect (‘Gringlish’) and its traditional glossary in the Notes."
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Here is our plan:
1. Read Intro excerpts or a summary to gain the big picture.
2. Read a segment of the translated text.
3. Discuss it analytically and interpretively.
4. Repeat again at #2 for several more times.
5. Discuss the segments evaluatively.
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Zoom is the project's current meeting platform, but that can change. The project's cloud drive is here, at which you'll find the reading texts, notes, and slideshows.