In this episode we discuss the first three chapters of Darwin's On the Expression and Emotion of Man and Animals, and James fails to convince the team to refer to the book as EEMA for short. The first chapters of EEMA lays out Darwin's 3 principle foundations and each of us focused on one of the principles. The three principles are:
I. The principle of serviceable associated Habits.—or "I wear my emotions on my sleeve"
II. The principle of Antithesis.— or "Turn that frown upside down"
III. The principle of actions due to the constitution of the Nervous System, - or "Everyone has a tell"
We discussed the oddity of Principle 2 in that Darwin seemed to not give adaptive value to the associated behaviors but saw them more as an opposite signal of the emotion associated with Principle 1. One of the clear examples Darwin discussed was the behaviors we see in our dogs and cats when they are expressing anger compared to when they are expressing happiness.
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| Fig. 5. Dog approaching another dog with hostile intentions. By Mr. Riviere. image from http://darwin-online.org.uk/ |
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| Fig. 6. The Same in a humble and affectionate frame of mind. By Mr. Riviere. image from http://darwin-online.org.uk/ |
At the end of the podcast we discussed a paper written by Gregory Radick entitled Darwin's Puzzling Expression. Wonderfully the article is available for free as well as the entire issue of
which can be found here.
The opening and closing theme to Discovering Darwin is "May" by Jared C. Balogh.
Interlude music is Lobo Loco - Spencer Bluegrass
