The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals
1872
The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals
1872
Darwin believed that when you scowl in anger or smile at a loved one, you are doing something your earliest mammalian ancestors did sixty million years ago. This 1872 work argues that your blush, your frown, the way your eyebrows lift in surprise these are not uniquely human inventions but ancient inheritance from the animal kingdom. Darwin maps six fundamental emotional states happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, disgust and shows how each manifests through the body in ways we share with our fellow creatures. It was his boldest book, tackling what many considered the hardest question in evolutionary theory: whether our most cherished human feelings are truly ours alone or biological gifts from creatures we once shared branches with. Paul Ekman called it the foundational text of modern emotion science. If you have ever wondered why we smile, why we blush, why fear makes our faces pale and anger sets our jaws tight, Darwin has an answer that still provokes a century and a half later.
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“Blushing is the most peculiar and most human of all expressions.””
— Charles Darwin
“It is always advisable to perceive clearly our ignorance.””
— Charles Darwin
“Englishmen rarely cry, except under the pressure of the acutest grief; whereas in some parts of the Continent the men shed tears much more readily and freely.””
— Charles Darwin
“When a man merely speaks to, or just notices, his dog,we see the last vestige of these movements in a slight wag of the tail, without any other movement of the body, and without even the ears being lowered. Dogs also exhibit their affection by desiring to rub against their masters, and to be rubbed or patted by them.””
— Charles Darwin
“No doubt as long as man and all other animals are viewed as independent creations, an effectual stop is put to our natural desire to investigate as far as possible the causes of Expression.””
— Charles Darwin
“I have described, in the second chapter, the gait and appearance of a dog when cheerful, and the marked antithesis presented by the same animal when dejected and disappointed, with his head, ears, body, tail, and chops drooping, and eyes dull.””
— Charles Darwin
“The upper lip during the act of grinning is retracted, as in snarling, so that the canines are exposed, and the ears are drawn backwards; but the general appearance of the animal clearly shows that anger is not felt. Sir C. Bell[3] remarks "Dogs, in their expression of fondness, have a slight eversion of the lips, and grin and sniff amidst their gambols, in a way that resembles laughter." Some persons speak of the grin as a smile, but if it had been really a smile, we should see a similar, though more pronounced, movement of the lips and ears, when dogs utter their bark of joy; but this is not the case, although a bark of joy often follows a grin.””
— Charles Darwin
“A pleasurable and excited state of mind, associated with affection, is exhibited by some dogs in a very peculiar manner, namely, by grinning.””
— Charles Darwin
“Further on, he adds, that dogs, when feeling affectionate, lower their ears in order to exclude all sounds, so that their whole attention may be concentrated on the caresses of their master! Dogs have another and striking way of exhibiting their affection, namely, by licking the hands or faces of their masters.””
— Charles Darwin
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Darwin, Charles. The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. Lex, lex-books.com/book/the-expression-of-the-emotions-in-man-and-animals-56dfc2e8-78b4-425e-9ce1-cc7d47716f54.Darwin, C. (1872). The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/the-expression-of-the-emotions-in-man-and-animals-56dfc2e8-78b4-425e-9ce1-cc7d47716f54Darwin, Charles. The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/the-expression-of-the-emotions-in-man-and-animals-56dfc2e8-78b4-425e-9ce1-cc7d47716f54.
