A Sentimentalist Theory of the Mind

Michael Slote argues that emotion is involved in all human thought and action on conceptual grounds, rather than merely being causally connected with other aspects of the mind. This kind of general sentimentalism about the mind goes beyond that advocated by Hume, and the book's main arguments are only partially anticipated in German Romanticism and in the Chinese philosophical tendency to avoid rigid distinctions between thought and emotion. The new sentimentalist philosophy of mind Slote proposes can solve important problems about the nature of belief and action that other approaches -- including Pragmatism -- fail to address.

In arguing for the centrality of emotion within philosophy of the mind, A Sentimentalist Theory of the Mind continues the critique of rationalist philosophical views that began with Slote's Moral Sentimentalism (OUP, 2010) and continued in his From Enlightenment to Receptivity (OUP, 2013). This new book also delves into what is distinctive about human minds, arguing that there is a greater variety to ordinary human motives than has been recognized and that emotions play a central role in this complex psychology.

Michael Slote received his Ph.D. from Harvard University and is UST Professor of Ethics at the University of Miami. A member of the Royal Irish Academy and former Tanner Lecturer, he is the author of many books and articles in ethics, political philosophy, and moral psychology. His current research is on the implications of sentimentalism for virtue epistemology and philosophy of science, and also on the implications of social science for a philosophical understanding of human lives and human life.