About this ebook
Psychology has framed it as neural activity, philosophy as internal representation.
Both traditions have attempted to explain emotion by enclosing it within the subject and mapping its internal order.
Yet contemporary neuroscience, evolutionary biology, social psychology, and the transformation of our information environments are beginning to unsettle the very premise that emotion is an “internal event.”
This book redefines emotion as a distributed, relational phenomenon that emerges through resonance with the external world, offering a new theoretical framework that moves beyond traditional internalist models.
Emotion is not a secret hidden in the depths of the self, but rather
a dynamic of coupling among body, environment, others, culture, and informational fields.
From this premise, the book reconstructs the generation, transformation, and propagation of emotion as processes of external resonance.
The introductory chapter critically examines the internalist assumptions that have shaped modern psychology.
From Chapter 1 through the final chapter, the book develops an interdisciplinary ontology of emotion, exploring:
- The externality of emotion: vibrations arising as worldly perturbations pass through bodily and semantic layers
- The biological, neural, and evolutionary foundations of the “open body”
- Distributed emotional emergence through information flows, social synchrony, and cultural codes
- A new classification system based on resonance intensity, phase, and spatial configuration
- A reconfiguration of subjectivity as something that arises from relations rather than individuals
- Implications for ethics, art, and communication
Emotion is not a private phenomenon sealed inside the subject.
It is a subtle vibration produced when modulations from the world flow through the body.
From this vantage point, the book attempts to redraw the entire map of emotion studies.
For researchers seeking to reconceptualize the fundamental structure of emotion.
For readers looking for a theoretical foundation that bridges psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, and information studies.
For anyone who wishes to rethink the relationship between subject and world.
— The horizon of a new affective theory begins here.
Word Count: 9271
by R. Setsuna