PSYC 050 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Steven Pinker, Phineas Gage, Social Emotions
Document Summary
One advantage of evolutionary perspectives on mind is that is forces us to look at is scientifically. We have to get a distance from ourselves. Why cant we talk to a crowd the way we talk to a friend. All of this seem natural bc they emerge from contingent aspects of biological nature. Bc it is stinky. the stinkiness is not an irreducible fact about the universe, but of human psychology. The first step to insight is to ask questions like why do things fall down and not up? why does water turn solid when it gets cold? asking questions that we normally wouldn"t ask. Wrong theory of emotions- in star trek, there are characters who are described as super competent and capable but don"t have emotions. This lack of emotion on tv doesn"t hurt. There are many people who want to think rationally and not be guided by emotions. This notion of thinking about emotion is wrong.
