A Theory of Feelings examines the problem of human feelings, widely understood, from phenomenological, analytic, and historical perspectives. It begins with an analysis of drives and affects, and pursues the nature of 'feeling' itself, in all of its variability, through a close study of the distinctive categories of emotions, emotional dispositions, orientive feelings, and the passions. As such, the starting point of the anlysis entails an examination of the characteristics of human involvement, or our ways of being in the world. Building upon this assessment of the conditions of human involvement, the philosophical history and emotional economy characteristic of modern relationships is treated, and the nature of expression, social division, suffering, and responsibility is evaluated in light of the theory of feeling presented here. The book is recommended to anyone interested in philosophy, psychology, sociology, and cognitive science.

Agnes Heller is the Hannah Arendt Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research and a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

Part 1 Introduction to the Second EditionPart 2 The Phenomenology of FeelingsChapter 3 What Does it Mean to FeelChapter 4 The Classification of FeelingsChapter 5 How Do We Learn to Feel?Chapter 6 Value Orientation and FeelingsChapter 7 Particularist and Individual FeelingsPart 8 Contributions to the Social Philosophy of FeelingsChapter 9 Introduction to Part IIChapter 10 About the Historical Dynamics of the Bourgeois World of Feelings in GeneralChapter 11 The Housekeeping of FeelingsChapter 12 The Abstraction of Feelings and BeyondPart 13 Epilogue: On Human Suffering