The Emotions: Outline of a Theory

Sartre (1905-1980) is arguably the best known philosopher of the twentieth century. His indefatigable pursuit of philosophical reflection, literary creativity and, in the second half of his life, active political commitment gained him worldwide renown, if not admiration. He is commonly considered the father of Existentialist philosophy, whose writings set the tone for intellectual life in the decade immediately following the Second World War. In this book, the eminent French philosopher seeks to develop a new theory and method of psychological interpretation. Delving into the mystery of the emotional process, he analyzes the roles which fear, lust, melancholy and anguish play in the life of man, and what is the true reality of conscious life. Sartre is impelled in this quest by a dissatisfaction with the present-day psychology, its aims and its methods. he attempts to show that psychology, insofar as it claims to be science, can furnish only a sum of miscellaneous facts, most of which have no connection with the others. He sees as the principle aim of psychology a desire to accumulate details of knowledge, without it being truly able to relate its findings to a specific conclusion about the reality of man. he blames psychology's inadequacies on its failure to understand the emotions in their proper context. Sartre replaces the idea of emotion as 'accident' with the idea of emotion as 'phenomenon', and offers an outline of a new psychology, based not on the collection of facts and data for the sake of formulating general laws, but based on the study of phenomena and what they signify relative to the psychic reality of man.