A new work on philosophy and mood has been published: Philosophie der Stimmungen by Jürgen Stenzel.
Stenzel is the president of the International Constantin Brunner Institute (website).
Here is a translation of the publisher's description of the new work:
This work is a solid advance in the realm of social theory. It is perhaps the first step toward a viable science of human interaction.
I have just received a copy, and I will be digging into it soon. I will post here my impressions.
Stenzel is the president of the International Constantin Brunner Institute (website).
Here is a translation of the publisher's description of the new work:
Moods should not be regarded as something secondary and subordinate in human experience. Starting from an expanded concept of mood, an anthropological theory is presented here, in which mood appears as the basic concept of existence. All feeling and understanding, thinking, wanting and acting is understood as mood events. We live in a complex structure of different, sometimes divergent and overlapping emotional atmospheres, the laws of which can be grasped in the "mood circle". In it, the dynamic effect of the moods becomes comprehensible and thus also any highlights on the one hand and any rigidities on the other. Moods can be positive or negative. They are responsible for our suffering and social conflicts, but also for the feeling of having arrived at ourselves, in the world or in the community. No morality has power over moods, because only what is mood in itself can become effective in action. Only the cultivation of positive moods, which is itself a mood event, can therefore lead to a meaningful life and successful togetherness. What emerges in this way is not a product of abstract reason, but coherent life itself.
This work is a solid advance in the realm of social theory. It is perhaps the first step toward a viable science of human interaction.
I have just received a copy, and I will be digging into it soon. I will post here my impressions.