Head and heart, thinking and feeling, rationality and emotions: we have lots of ways of dividing human life into two opposed categories, and many of us might assume that philosophy is firmly on the ‘head’ side of the divide. But philosophers have had a lot of interesting things to say about emotions over the centuries, and in recent decades, especially, new perspectives have emerged about the nature of emotions, and role that emotional responsiveness might play in the deepest kind of moral reflection and action.

In this course, we will look at a few classic philosophical accounts of emotions, before diving into some more recent debates about the role of emotions in moral life. We’ll examine why it has been so difficult to give a clear account  of what emotions are; the idea of emotions as forms of evaluation; the role of emotions in action. Towards the end of the course, we will look at two clusters of questions about particular emotions, and their role in our lives: resentment and blame; empathy and compassion.