Yuck!

An exploration of the character and evolution of disgust and the role this emotion plays in our social and moral lives.

People can be disgusted by the concrete and by the abstract—by an object they find physically repellent or by an ideology or value system they find morally abhorrent. Different things will disgust different people, depending on individual sensibilities or cultural backgrounds. In Yuck!, Daniel Kelly investigates the character and evolution of disgust, with an emphasis on understanding the role this emotion has come to play in our social and moral lives.

Disgust has recently been riding a swell of scholarly attention, especially from those in the cognitive sciences and those in the humanities in the midst of the "affective turn." Kelly proposes a cognitive model that can accommodate what we now know about disgust. He offers a new account of the evolution of disgust that builds on the model and argues that expressions of disgust are part of a sophisticated but largely automatic signaling system that humans use to transmit information about what to avoid in the local environment. He shows that many of the puzzling features of moral repugnance tinged with disgust are by-products of the imperfect fit between a cognitive system that evolved to protect against poisons and parasites and the social and moral issues on which it has been brought to bear. Kelly's account of this emotion provides a powerful argument against invoking disgust in the service of moral justification.

“"Yuck remains an impressive achievement and is well worth reading. Kelly's theory of disgust is intricate, novel, and compelling, and Kelly raises many fascinating questions about its implications." -- Philosophical Quarterly”

This entertaining and informative book is an excellent example of a relatively new genre: philosophy informed by and working in partnership with cognitive science, evolutionary psychology and neurophysiology.... I found it hard to put this book down, and recommend it as a shining example of genuine progress in moral philosophy, arising from bona fide increases in our understanding of who and what we are.

Kelly has provided the best kind of gateway for anyone interested in learning about disgust and its pervasive role in our society.... By looking closely at the functional nature of disgust, the highly complex and subtle workings behind a given motivational and evaluative attitude have been revealed.

Yuck! is a short, clear, engaging book that is likely to make a lasting impact on philosophical thinking about the emotions. No philosopher making claims about the emotions can afford not to read it and learn its lessons.

Yuck! remains an impressive achievement and is well worth reading. Kelly's theory of disgust is intricate, novel, and compelling, and Kelly raises many fascinating questions about its implications.

This book is highly recommended for those readers interested in the latest and most exciting aspects of current scholarship on the study of the emotions. Readers too who are interested on evolutionary psychology, moral psychology or neuroethics will find this book stimulating.

Sophisticated, broadly interdisciplinary....the book as a whole provides a fine example of careful intellectual argument, a model, in fact, for students not only in philosophy.

Daniel Kelly is Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Purdue University.

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