This major volume of original essays traces the role of emotions in human nature through a discussion of the relationship between consciousness and body. It analyzes the importance of emotion for human agency and explores questions of value at the political, ethical and personal levels. Leading researchers reflect on the nature of human feelings; how and why we understand what other people feel, and how our values become involved in such emotions as guilt, fear, shame, amusement, or love.

Self-knowledge has always been a central topic of philosophical inquiry. It is hard to think of a major philosopher, from ancient times to the present, who refrained from pronouncing on the nature, the importance, or the limitations of one's knowing of oneself as oneself. What makes self-knowledge such a perplexing phenomenon? The essays featured in this collection seek to deepen our understanding of self-knowledge, to solve some of the genuine (and to resolve some of the spurious) problems that hold back philosophical progress on that front, and to assess the value of some classic moves in...