Ep173 "Why Do We Have Emotions?" with Robert Kurzban

Robert Kurzban’s book examines emotions through the evolutionary problems they may have helped ancestral humans solve. It organizes feelings according to functions involving bodily maintenance, external threats and opportunities, social relationships, mental processes, and unusual experiences. Kurzban repeatedly asks what each emotion measures and what action it motivates. The framework treats feelings as signals that compete for attention and behavioral control. It also considers how ancient emotional systems can become mismatched with modern environments shaped by technology, abundance, and complex social institutions.

In 'Good Reasons for Bad Feelings', Randolph M. Nesse uses insights from evolutionary biology to explain why negative emotions exist and how they can become overwhelming. He argues that emotions like anxiety and low mood are adaptive responses to specific situations, but can escalate into mental disorders. The book offers a new framework for understanding mental illness by considering the mismatch between modern environments and our evolutionary past.