Abstract
Since Babel, the idea of constructing a tower of stones as a means of entering into heaven has given way to the idea of constructing a tower of understanding. Philosophers since the ancient Greeks and psychologists for at least 100 years have tried to reach the paradise of everlasting epistemological bliss by unlocking the secrets of the mind. In that struggle and despite the vicissitudes of psychological fashion, the study of emotion has played an essential, if not always explicit, role. In virtually every text we have examined, emotion is assumed, mistakenly and unscientifically, to be a term that is mutually understood (cf. Quine, 1960) or, attempting to foil the gods much space is devoted to the problem of definition. That is where our story starts.
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When all men formed a single unit and began their wanderings over the earth they arrived at the Plain of Shinar and conceived the idea of a structure which would enable them to reach Heaven. The gods were alarmed at this suggested intrusion and, descending to the earth, struck terror to the hearts of men by confounding their speech so that no man could understand his neighbour.... The site of the tower is now but a hole in the ground.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1959, p. 839—after Genesis XI
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Brown, T., Kozak, A. (1998). Emotion and the Possibility of Psychologists Entering into Heaven. In: Mascolo, M.F., Griffin, S. (eds) What Develops in Emotional Development?. Emotions, Personality, and Psychotherapy. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-1939-7_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-1939-7_6
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