Open Court Publishing Co ,U.S. On Disgust

In these two essays, Kolnai (1905-1973, philosophy, Bedford College) distinguishes disgust from other emotions, such as fear, contempt, and hatred. He examines the range of physically disgusting items, observing that disgusting material is always biological. And he considers the macabre attraction of the disgusting, analyzing the relationship it embodies between life and death, and then considering the implications of this analysis for purely moral disgust. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) In On Disgust, pioneering philosopher Aurel Kolnai (1905-1973) draws on Husserl's phenomenological method to examine the experience of disgust. He distinguishes disgust from other emotions of aversion such as fear and contempt and shows how it relates to the five senses. Kolnai argues that disgust is never related to inorganic or nonbiological matter, and that its arousal by moral objects has an underlying similarity with its arousal by organic material: a particular combination of life and death. This book also includes an article published shortly before the author's death titled "The Standard Modes of Aversion: Fear, Disgust, and Hatred." Kolnai made a breakthrough in the phenomenology of aversion when he showed the "double intentionality" of emotions like fear, focusing on both the object of fear and the subjects' concern for his own well-being, this being one of the ways in which fear differs from disgust. In a surprising yet persuasive move, Kolnai argues that disgust is never related to inorganic or non-biological matter, and that its arousal by moral objects has an underlying similarity with its arousal by organic material: a particular combination of life and death. Kolnai gives an analytic list of various kinds of disgusting objects (which should not be read just before lunch) and shows how disgust relates to the five senses. Autorid: Aurel Kolnai, Barry Smith, Carolyn Korsmeyer