Nicolò Valentini

This book takes the reader on a philosophical quest to understand the dark side of emotions. The chapters are devoted to the analysis of negative emotions and are organized in a historical manner, spanning the period from ancient Greece to the present time. Each chapter addresses analytical questions about specific emotions generally considered to be unfavorable and classified as negative. The general aim of the volume is to describe the polymorphous and context-sensitive nature of negative emotions as well as changes in the ways people have interpreted these emotions across different epochs. The editors speak of ‘the dark side of the emotions’ because their goal is to capture the ambivalent – unstable and shadowy – aspects of emotions. A number of studies have taken the categorial distinction between positive and negative emotions for granted, suggesting that negative emotions are especially significant for our psychological experience because they signal difficult situations. For this reason, the editors stress the importance of raising analytical questions about the valence of particular emotions and focussing on the features that make these emotions ambivalent: how – despite their negativity – such emotions may turn out to be positive. This opens up a perspective in which each emotion can be understood as a complex interlacing of negative and positive properties. The collection presents a thoughtful dialogue between philosophy and contemporary scientific research. It offers the reader insight by illuminating the dark side of the emotions.

The present essay aims to shed light on the relationship between disgust and morality by investigating the notion of miasma in Ancient Greece. Miasma mostly refers to pollution in both a moral and a religious sense: it is generated by impious thoughts and immoral acts and, if not contained, can spread like a disease, thus contaminating the whole community. In my analysis, I aim to propose a new understanding of this concept by analysing its structural relationship to a negative emotion: disgust. In fact, the latest neuroscientific and psychological findings point to a substantial relationship between disgust and morality. However, this interconnection is fraught with ambivalence. Disgust is typically considered to be a negative moral and social emotion due to its dehumanizing tendencies and its impenetrability to mitigating factors. Nevertheless, this aversive emotion seems to play a positive role in the non-violent condemnation of antisocial behaviour through the stigmatization of wrongdoers. In light of this research, I argue that miasma is a manifestation of the subtle interplay between disgust and morality.

Emotions are complex phenomena. We all have an intuitive understanding of what they are because we experience them in everyday life. They occur in response to triggering situations in the external environment and play a major role in our perception, cognition, and motivation. Despite their paramount importance in our lives, attempts to provide a general definition or complete taxonomy of emotions have failed. To date, both the definition and classification of emotions remain controversial and depend on the theory of emotions one favours.